Limey Dragon Games & Hobbies

Limey Dragon Re-spec

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:23:26 -0500

Since the Store has been closed of some time now, and the website is not being used as much i have decided to respec the website to cover all gaming in the Oklahoma City Metro and Surrounding Areas.

The main goal is for people to meet each other using the forums. People can post looking for games and or players of all kinds. Find and locate local stores for items they are needing. Keep up with tournaments aroudn the area. And to top it off post news about upcoming stuff for gamers.

More CoH issue 13 stuff

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:36:38 -0500

Good morning Players!

I wanted to be the first to let you all know that the primary Feature list for Issue 13: Architect is now live! That said, I�d like to take this opportunity to talk to you about some of the new features in more depth.

First off is the issue name, Architect. I liked the correlation that the name has between some of the improvements we are making to bases (in the way new things are purchased for them) and to our Mission Architect feature. Players can now be architects of their own story arcs that other players can play. When I first mentioned this system in the 4th Anniversary post, I had no idea how wildly popular that single concept would be. The thread that followed that post had a plethora of ideas of how such a system could, and should work from a player�s perspective.

With virtually no information to go on, some people very much underestimated what would be possible with the Mission Architect. Some got it spot on, and some people wanted features that were simply impossible to get into the system at launch. Even so, we are very proud of the system as it stands. Players can make their own story arcs using a customised version of the tool used by our mission writers, in some cases rivalling our own internal tools in ease-of-use. I am really looking forward to playing the stories you all create with this amazing tool!

I should probably take this moment to talk about what the Mission Architect is not meant for. It is not meant for �easy levelling�, �badging� or �farming�. Those are things that we specifically wanted the Mission Architect NOT to do. This may be a disappointment to some, I know. The goal was to give creative minds an outlet to tell the stories they have in their heads. We didn�t want the system clogged with Farm missions, so actually finding someone�s story that they lovingly crafted became more a chore than it was worth.

To that end, the Rewards in the Mission Architect are something we, ahem, discussed with raised voices time and time again. How much was too much? How little was too little? What limits needed to be put into place to stop farming? Should we even have such limits? Etc. In the end, we made a system that we believe is best suited for what the Mission Architect was made for, and made sure it cannot be abused. Time and testing will tell if that is really the case though. Like the Invention System, there will be many iterations on the Mission Architect to make sure we get it right before it goes to the Live servers.

Next I want to talk about Day Jobs. This started out as a kind of �secret identity� system, but we wanted to save the term Secret Identity for a system that fit that name better. Day Jobs works well because it is �what your character is doing when not being a Hero or a Villain�. It�s their �day job�. A character who logs out in the Hospital is assumed to be working in a medicinal capacity, and they will receive a themed bonus when they log back in, that sort of thing. We even made it possible to have your character�s Day Job to be �On Patrol� or �Committing Crimes�, just in case you couldn�t envision your character having a �normal life� while you were not actively playing them.

There are plenty of other features in Issue 13: Architect as well, like the new powersets, including the much requested �Villainous Version of Empathy� called Pain Domination. We�re also adding some great new missions to Issue 12�s Roman Zone �Cimerora,� as well as a brand new reward system that will hopefully see the end of �necessary� Task Force farming trying to get that one specific Recipe you have been dying to get. The Issue 13 Feature List explains more about that. We�ll be announcing more specifics of each of these features between now and the beta testing for Issue 13.

Finally, I want to tell you about two �Booster Packs� that will be available in a month or so. Many players have requested the ability to buy the 30 day temporary jetpack that comes with the new City of Heroes Game Cards. Once the retailer exclusive period ends next month, we are making the same jetpack available for purchase for �2.99/�4.49. We are also excited to launch our Super Booster I: Cyborg Pack for �5.99/�8.99. This pack has an awesome set of costume pieces, emotes, auras and a power. We�ll be sharing all of the details shortly.

So thank you players for the enthusiastic support! I can�t wait to get these new features into your hands and to answer your questions about Issue 13 over the coming months and at Hero-Con in October.

Happy hunting!

Matt �Positron� Miller
Lead Designer, City of Heroes/Villains

Guitar Praise Solid Rock

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:51:23 -0500

Christian 'Guitar Hero' Clone Coming

Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:54 PM

If you'd like to play Guitar Hero, but find that the game is too ungodly for you, might we suggest upcoming Christian-themed guitar video game Guitar Praise Solid Rock?

The Christian alternative to music games is from the makers of holy rhythm game Dance Praise, and will be available in mid September. Guitar Praise will allow you to "add a unique sound to the solid Christian rock." The game even lets you play with a Christian friend by ordering a second, wireless guitar, so you won't be praising-your-god-through-videogames alone.

The groups represented here include Christian rockers like 12 Stone, Bride and Thousand Foot Klutch.

Guitar Praise's entire track list is below.

Song List:

12 Stones -- Broken
Bride--Same Ol' Sinner
Caedmons Cal--There You Go
Casting Crowns -- Lifesong
Chris Tomlin -- Made to Worship
Darrell Evans -- So Good To Me
David Crowder Band -- Foreverandever Etc.
Day Of Fire -- Reap and Sow
dc Talk -- Jesus Freak
Family Force -- 5 Love Addict
Flyleaf -- Perfect
Hawk Nelson -- The Show
Hawk Nelson -- Friend Like That
Inhabited -- Rescue Me
Israel & New Breed -- All Around
James Clay -- Franklin Park
Jared Anderson -- Blind Man
Jennifer Knapp -- Undo Me
Jeremy Camp -- Tonight
Jessie Daniels -- What I Hear
Jonah33 -- Father's Song
Josh Bates --Perfect Day
Kutless -- Beyond the Surface
Kutless -- Hearts of the Innocent
Lincoln Brewster -- Spin
Nate Sallie -- All About You
Nevertheless -- The Real
Newsboys -- Something Beautiful
Paul Baloche -- Rock of Ages
Paul Baloche-- All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
Petra -- Backsliding Blues
Pillar -- When Tommorrow Comes
Red -- Breathe Into Me
Relient K -- I Need You
Seventh Day Slumber -- Awake
Skillet -- The Older I Get
Skillet -- Rebirthing
Skillet -- Savior
Spoken -- Wind In My Sails
Spoken -- Falling Further
Spur 58 -- Sleepwalkers
Stellar Kart -- Procrastinating
Superchick -- We Live
The Crucified -- The Pit
This Beautiful Republic -- Going Under
Thousand Foot Krutch -- The Flame in All of Us
Thousand Foot Krutch -- The Art of Breaking
tobyMac -- I'm For You
Todd Agnew -- This Fragile Breath
Warren Barfield -- My Heart Goes Out
Whitecross -- Who Will You Follow
Whitecross -- When The Walls Tumble Down

In the interest of catering to all religious groups, we're developing Guitar Cthulu. for the PS3. (note: Limey Dragon loves this idea, except for the PS3 part)

Source

New CoH

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:36:09 -0500

Mission Architect:

First the City of Heroes Character Creator set a new standard for player creation and customization. Now, Issue 13 takes another giant step, allowing players to design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community. Using an intuitive interface similar to the game�s detailed Character Creator, players can create missions from the ground up. Players will determine details ranging from environments, mission objectives, and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue; giving their stories nearly infinite depth and personalization.

Among other rewards, authors and architects who create the most extraordinary content will garner acclaim and reputation. Community feedback will be paramount and some missions will elevate in status unlocking new rewards and benefits for their creators.

Day Jobs (Offline Character Progression)

Scholar? Caregiver? City Official? Now when players log out of City of Heroes / Villains they�re just getting started! A character�s day job is determined by the actual in-game location from which he or she logs out. If players log out from a University their day job is considered to be a Scholar. If they log out from City Hall they're a City Official. The benefits are thematically appropriate to the location. For example, a City Official earns extra Influence, a Scholar is granted Salvage, a Caregiver is granted Health Regeneration Buffs, etc.

Once characters have accumulated the required amount of time for each Day Job, they are rewarded with the appropriate Day Job Badge and Title, increasing their �earnings� for that job. Multiple Badges can be combined to unlock Accolades and the ability to accumulate additional new rewards. Almost every location within Paragon City and the Rogue Isles has an associated Day Job, resulting in a wide selection of jobs and rewards!

New Powersets

Shields � Heft a Shield for Heroic of Villainous Ends! This new powerset brings a classic power to City of Heroes: Shields! Now, you can arm Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers with a powerful shield to protect themselves and their allies.
Pain Domination � Villains can now bend the power of pain to serve their own ends! Those playing a Corruptor or Mastermind have access to this new powerset. The antithesis of the Hero healing powerset �Empathy,� Pain Domination brings parity between Heroes and Villains with a distinctively evil flair.

New Cimerora Missions

New Hero and Villain story arcs expand upon the history and lore, and delve into the players and politics of Cimerora.

The Merit Rewards System

A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

Other features

New Invention Origin Sets, new Costume Sets, a Patron Power Respec, Zone Refinements, and more!

'DC Universe Online' Comic-Con Details

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:22:37 -0500

Jim Lee and his superhero creatin' crew dished out a few details during Comic-Con on their promising MMO title, DC Universe Online. The game published by Sony Online Entertainment is due out sometime next year for the Playstation 3 and PC. Here are some of the things Lee discussed:

Action-oriented combat will be implemented into the title to nullify several monotonous "grinding" sessions, and super powers will be ready to use from the beginning.
Ability to create leagues and legions (Justice and Doom!)
No word yet on subscription fees
The Dark Knight fans, Christian Bale's reprisal won't be in the game. Lee said that "this game will be the purest form of the DC Universe."
Loot aesthetics can be modified and will retain the traditional MMO "rare" finds
Individual hero storylines will be given, but there will be world events where you must fight another player depending on the situation (a player who's in Joker's posse robs a bank and then gets blocked by one of Batman's students...commence the GEEKING OUT!)

Check out the video from last week's E3 after the cut and make sure to stick around for more Comic-Con updates.

Watch the large version of this video

'Tron 2' Footage Screened At Comic-Con

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:31:54 -0500

Among the surprises at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego was Disney unveiling some brand new footage from Tron 2!

Jeff Bridges is back in the flick, and the trailer sounds like it's a more-violent, visceral version of the the original flick. In it, a fast-paced light cycle duel is interrupted with a cut to the "real" world, where an older, tougher looking Flynn is basically playing a videogame. Back to the computer world: The race ends in a violent crash. The victorious driver lifts his visor to reveal that it's Flynn, the hero of the original flick.

The defeated driver says: "But it's only a game."

Flynn: "Not any more."

And title. Intriguing! Disney promises we'll be seeing more footage from the movie closer to its release next year.

WoW Addicts More Shameful Than Porn Addicts

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:07:01 -0500

Dr. Jerald Block is an Oregon Psychiatrist who deals with gaming addiction, an ever-growing and, according to Block, under-recognized form of addiction with complicated pitfalls for treatment.

World of Warcraft addicts, for instance, have a hard time getting treatment because of the language barrier between the therapist and the patient as many psychiatrists have no idea what a guild is or what it means to advance in levels.

Even more interestingly, porn addicts feel less shame when addicted than WoW fans.

Block says: As a society we understand that porn is something people do, and you can see a psychiatrist and get treated for it. But gaming is hard to describe to anyone else. So these people can't explain their situation to friends. In fact, it's hard to give you an example of what my clients talk about, because gaming is enormously complicated.

Also, Jack Thompson apparently gets the first comment on the Game Politics article, and if that really is him, it shows how delusional and computer illiterate he really is.

gamepolitics.com: Shrink: WoW Addicts Feel More Shame Than Porn Addicts

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�Grand Theft� rationality

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:33:17 -0500

As a psychologist and video game researcher, I have seen many comments about the new video game from Rockstar Games, �Grand Theft Auto IV.� There is much hysteria and false information swirling around the release of this game.

With little doubt, GTA is a violent game with mature themes, and many parents are well within their rights to decline to allow their children to play it. Yet parents should make their decisions about GTA in the knowledge that their decision is a moral one, not a practical or scientific one. Here are some facts about violent video games that I hope may help bring the discussion to less of a panic.

First, violent video games do not cause violent behavior. There are no good data at all to suggest that they do. GTA might be brutal, and perhaps offensive to some, but it is not going to spawn a horde of little would-be murderers. In fact, as the consumption of violent video games in our society has skyrocketed, violent crimes, including those among youths, have plummeted to low levels not seen since the 1960s. We can be sure that violent video games are not sparking a youth violence epidemic because there is no youth violence epidemic.

In my own research, I have found that family violence exposure as a child and the individual�s innate (probably genetic) personality are related to violent criminal behaviors, but that violent video game exposure is not. A recent Secret Service report found that school shooters, far from being soaked in violent video games, had relatively low interest in such games. For example, the recent Virginia Tech shooter was not a violent game player.

Second, equating video games with pornography is a pointless comparison. It ignores that video games have evolved to include distinct artistic elements. GTA has itself been compared to �The Sopranos� in regard to its story line, quality and violent content. If you like (or allow your kids to watch) �The Sopranos,� you�ll probably be content with GTA (likewise if you don�t like one, you may not like the other). For the record, however, pornography is no more linked to rape than violent games are to violent crimes. Researchers have long known that rape rates have gone down in the U.S. as pornography consumption has increased. Rapists typically consume less pornography and are exposed to it later than non-rapist men.

Third, we need to give the current generation of youths more credit. Today�s youths are healthier in most respects than any other group of youths since the 1960s. Today�s youths are less likely to engage in violent crime, use drugs or alcohol, get pregnant, commit suicide or drop out of school than were youths of previous generations. The major health concern for today�s youths is obesity, which is on the rise; otherwise, the youths of today are doing well.

Last, the current hysteria over violent video games is merely part of a long historical pattern of society blaming media for problems real or imagined. Media, from novels to comic books, to music such as jazz, rock and rap, to television and movies to �Harry Potter� and �Dungeons and Dragons� have inflamed public turmoil over behavioral crises that never came to pass. Even translating the Bible into English set off waves of hysteria back in the 1500s. Such moral panics are popular as they deflect blame for our own behavior or the behavior of our children onto �straw men� that we can revile for providing the violent and sexual media that we crave. Ultimately, we have responsibility for ourselves and for our children. If things don�t go the way we want, let us look not to the media but inward, to ourselves.

Christopher J. Ferguson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas.

Teens proposition prostitutes for Halo marathon

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:01:07 -0500

Teens proposition prostitutes for Halo marathon

A 13-year-old boy from Texas who used cash from a stolen credit card to hire two prostitutes to play Halo with him has been found guilty of fraud. Ralph Hardy was given a three-year community order after he ordered an extra credit card on his Dad's account, then took his mates on a $30,000 shopping spree and played Halo with two prostitutes in a motel, reports News.com.au.

The kids checked in to the Texas motel, and then promptly ordered deliveries of Dr Pepper, Fritos, and Oreo cookies. They then asked the delivery clerk if they knew where they could "score some chicks," adding that they were willing to pay for the privilege.

They explained away the fact that they had pots of money by telling the clerk that they had won big in a World of Warcraft tournament, and that they "wanted to relax."

The boys told the girls that they weren't underage, they were "people of restricted growth working with a traveling circus," and that to discriminate against them on the basis of their disability would be breaking state law. However, in the end, the kids decided to play Halo on Xboxes with the girls, who reportedly told police they thought something was up when their clients just wanted to play games.

The delivery clerk called the police, who arrived at the scene to find $3,000 in cash, the two women, electronic gadgets including the console, and oodles of soft drinks and munchies. The prostitutes were released without charge.

Guy Ritchie Directing 'Sgt. Rock?'

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:11:39 -0500

Guy Ritchie, who made Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, as well as being Mr. Madonna, is rumored to be the director of the upcoming Sgt. Rock movie, based on the comic book about the great American soldier and his platoon of G.I. Joes. Even more exciting is that the rumor is coming from the producer of the film, Joel Silver.

So, Ritchie, who is currently directing RockNRolla, is apparently going to go directly from that project to this one. In unrelated news, Joel Silver once fired an assistant for bringing him the wrong sandwich. So, there's always that to think about.

IGN: Sgt. Rock Director Buzz