Note: this article was originally written in October 2008

BG3, Europe's premier battlegroup, home to teams like Nihilum, SK-EU, x6tence and Mousesports, is the place to be for competitive arena. Cyclone's defining moment was SK's "European battlegroup project" at the beginning of Season 3 which aimed to encourage a US-style "BG9" on the continent. As Kolja 'Phixus' Verhage (the former manager of the Nihilum PvP teams) says, SK's campaign "really just made Cyclone known to the 'average joe', mo…  More

Last week I brought to your attention a number of thoughtful and articulate posts from the geniuses of the official WoW forums. The last seven days have also witnessed a wide variety of exceptional threads that make me proud to play a game filled with intelligent and intellectually gifted players:

"Also, just because someone isn't physically good at the game, doesn't mean they know less than someone else mentally. An example would be that a footballer can play the sport, which a manager can't but…  More

In the midst of collapsing financial systems, failing banks and bankrupt organisations, we've also seen a crumbling arena, the complete breakdown of any semblance of class balance and the annihilation of skill in pvp.

As the spectre of recession looms over global finance, the insane power of burst damage has cast a shadow over an arena system which used to be far more controlled and stable. Risky bankers, ineffective regulatory regimes and colossal debt has brought capitalism to its knees whilst …  More

Study shows gamers more likely to drink, smoke weed, ignore friends:

"Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah talked to 813 university students across the US, and found that as the amount of time playing video games went up, the quality of relationships with friends and family went down."

Well, blow me down and call me Vance Phuoc! You mean to say spending most of the day blowing up pixellated terrorists is detrimental to my real-life relationships? This is news to me. I always thought the…  More

I managed to get few arena matches in before they took arena masters away and Blizzard have made some really good changes in the patch. Before now I was struggling in the 1700s and 1800s but since I now play only people same skill level as me I'm finally pushing into 2k+ even though rogues are totally underpowered rigt now. Healers are just a nightmare right now they are impossible to kill and even though DKs and hunters got nerfed I still think it's unfair I can't kill them. Fortunately Blizzard didn't phuoc up the beloved rogue class with retarded nerfs which would have made rogues suck like they did in TBC.…  More

President Vance ‘Serennia’ Phuoc, the first Asian to head Blizzard Entertainment, yesterday promised America and the world a future where skill will triumph over ineptitude.

At 12:05pm California time, Phuoc swore on the very first copy of World of Warcraft that he would faithfully execute the office of the President of Blizzard Entertainment.

Then he told the five-strong crowd which spread ten yards back from the main building that Blizzard would overcome terribads, gibfests, AP/PoM/Pyro a…  More

I'm always amazed at the number of thought-provoking, eloquent and detailed forum posts that are made on the official WoW forums. Every now and again a post is made that is so erudite it manages to capture exactly what everyone else is thinking. This blog is a celebration of those WoW players:

‘I do not like the idea of dual specs. I don’t like it because it’s a way of saying “you can’t tank unless you spec protection.” The point is I don’t want to switch my spec AT ALL. I want to b…  More

I'd like to applaud Blizzard on achieving something truly egalitarian with WotLK. No longer do you have to look on in jealousy at the gladiator's with their Season 4 shoulders and epic weapons, now with the latest expansion you can be competing with these very same people for those elusive titles you just couldn't get in TBC because, well, you sucked!

No longer do you have to wallow in jealousy and anger at the "pros" that used to outplay and beat you every time. Now in WotLK arena they will st…  More

I've seen many comments and blogs around GameRiot recently that seem to think (or at least imply) that damage was too low in TBC and healing too powerful. This was the cause for long, drawn-out matches and mana wars between the healers.

First of all arena in TBC was ten times better than it is now! I'd much rather take twenty-minute long games and Star's Tears over "I-WIN" button gibfests no matter how much I love seeing warlocks getting pummelled into the ground. Secondly, it was simply not tru…  More

"WoW has been updated with a host of fixes, tweaks and new features, including enhancements to PvP for improved competitive play."

If only this was patch 3.08 rather than a plagiarism of the latest update for L4D .

Darkfall Developers Speak

A week before the release of Darkfall, Claus Grovdal, Lead Designer and Tasos Flambouras, Associate Producer answered questions from premium users on Ten Ton Hammer. The game will be available for digital download on 22nd January and the release will be sta…  More