Through twitter, I have found GamingAngels.  The staff has embraced me as one of their own and in the months I have been working with them, have found a nice little family.  Although we are spread out across the nation, gaming, social media & the internet we are able to stay in touch and run GamingAngels.com as a team.  This has impacted my life in a positive way and given me a new outlook on my life as a gamer.  I used to hide the fact that I played video games, like it was a dirty little secret.  I had a fear that I’d be judged as a non-professional, as immature.  With the help of social media, I’ve seen that there are a great many professionals who enjoy the sport of gaming as much as I do.

Of course, there is the social aspect.  With conventions, tournaments, sites like twitter and facebook, online gaming, online multiplayer and game chats, it’s easy to connect with other gamers, talk about life and have some laughs.  Through these outlets, I’ve also seen a great number of people find jobs in the industry.  It’s good to have connections.  It’s also fun.  The number one reason to play games is for fun.  What better way to end a stressful day at the office than to sit on your comfy couch and play a game of Call of Duty?  Or how about having a family game night?  A lot of games seem to be geared toward families or groups.  Who wouldn’t want their mother to issue them a beat down in a game of The Fight: Lights Out?

Many games for kids prove to be educational as well.  I’ll be honest, my kids love gaming and I feel they learn a great deal from games.  They can teach anything from Colors and ABC’s to logic and problem solving.  Yes, there are games out there that are not for kids but that is a parent’s responsibility to ensure safe and appropriate games for their child as well as to guard them from possible online connections that should not be made.

With the Wii, PS Move and Xbox Kinect, games have taken a hard right.  The fact that sitting on your butt for hours is not very healthy can be countered with the Fitness and Motion games on the market.  These games are fun, educational and many of them can get you to work up a sweat after a while (fitness games or not).  This can get you out of those boring gyms, keep you away from repetitive work out videos and give you a customized program on your personal fitness level with progress tracking and in-game rewards for reaching your goals.  In our GamingAngels forum, we recently finished the “90 Day Challenge: New Years Edition!”, and another challenge will be starting soon.  Through our forum we are able to encourage and support each other in our fitness goals, along with a few rewards along the way.  Some people have turned to good old exercise and healthy food choices, while some of us have combined them with fitness and motion games.  It gives us a whole new way to keep in shape.  I myself have been playing Dance Central lately and I love the workout mode which calculates your workout time as well as estimating your calories burned.  On those days I don’t feel like going for a run or if the weather is bad, I still find myself turning on my Xbox for a few rounds of dancing.  It really seems to take the work out of workout!

So, with all things said and done, I feel there is a good deal of positive that can come from gaming which outweighs the negative.  I think people who oppose gaming altogether should be more open to the possibility that games could bring a positive change in their life.

The Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence organization is dedicated to educating parents of the world’s fastest growing addiction and the most reckless endangerment of children today: Video Game Addiction and Violence in Underground Video Game Cultures

Video game addiction is without a doubt, becoming this century’s most increasingly worrisome epidemic, comparable even to drug and alcohol abuse. All the while, the video game industry continues to market and promote hatred, racism, sexism, and the most disturbing trend: clans and guilds, an underground video game phenomenon which closely resembles gangs. Parents NEED to be aware of the hidden dangers.

~ The Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence Organization

(All emphasis above is from the MAVAV.) Second, I don’t feel that any part of the above statement is true.  I do not believe that video games lead to violence, drug and alcohol abuse, hatred, racism, sexism, and gang activity.  I truly believe games can play a positive role for kids, and adults alike.  They’re fun and that’s what they are meant to be and at times can be educational or even healthy (i.e. fitness games).  Sure, if you ignore your kid and set them in front of the TV to play video games all day or night, your electronic babysitter may cause your child excessive laziness.  That’s where parents come in, we are the moderators, responsible for our child’s health and well being.  Do more with your child, raise them, be a living example, teach them the skills they need to succeed.  It’s not video games that cause problems for kids, its parents who don’t take responsibility for being a parent.  I feel that people who think that violent games are the cause of all our problems in the world are nothing but ill-informed simpletons.

When my motor skills are otherwise engaged with monotonous tasks, I find my thoughts drifting into a game world unconsciously. I could be painting my house or cooking, and while my hands are involved in a menial task my mind will wander back inside Lineage II’s darkly gothic landscape. Or while gardening I can find myself drifting through one of my early quests into MMO’s inside the Dark Age of Camelot. At times when other games suck, or occasionally are excellent I am reminded of the hundreds of hours I spent in Baldur’s Gate, Diablo, or Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t mean singularly, each one of those is a franchise spanning many years of iterations beginning on Mac, evolving to PC and then the consoles.

So where exactly are these virtual places in my mind? They feel dream-like to me when I remember being in them, but were human brains meant to contain these waking dreams? And if so where does it put them? If my dream space takes place in the sloshing chemicals of the endoplasmic reticulum residing between my two hemispheres, (eyes up here) where then is the imagination of a game world stored? If by playing enough we can train our brains to just “go there” are scenarios like .hack and Serial Experiments Lain going to inevitably evolve?

We refer to these visual planes as virtual reality, but what does that mean, and does my mind really know the difference? I know my heart rate increases in anticipation, and in battle. I might jump from being startled in just the right horror game. This raises lots of unanswered questions I realize. They may even go unanswered until generation X is old enough to be senile and ask for their sword and armor at the Obama-care old folks facility.

Psychologists have wasted plenty of time studying the possible bad effects of video games, and only found that a small fraction of gamers suffer serious problems like game addiction. There are plenty of other interesting things to study going on inside gamers heads that might be positive. Once in a while other skills like landing a plane in an emergency is attributed to video games, which may or may not be true. Playing or watching a fitness game does improve your edge physically by 5-10%. Video simulations of reality for training are becoming more widespread beyond just games. Three D technology is here to stay as the hardware starts to roll out this year. With more unreal experiences to explore it opens up not only the technological frontier, but also forges new keys to unlock our inner world.

It is described as putting teams of heroes and villains against each other on a battlefield for control of the map. There are over 50 champions from to be released periodically over the course of the game’s opening months. The game design rewards teamwork, tactics, and competitive game-play.

Players interested in participating in the upcoming Closed Beta (CB) testing period will get their chance to sign up for the game early next year.

*ahem*  ¬_¬

Welcome to /info, the new bi-weekly MMO news report that will be hosted by Stealthyslyth and Xalaga. As two MMO players ourselves, we’ve branched out from World of Warcraft and like to play other MMOs in order to try something new or to just avoid the dreaded burnout. We will compile news, screen shots and videos into one nifty column so you can get all of your MMO news in one place! Alright, so we have news to share with you and share we shall:

Rogues and Masqueraiders:

Ankama brings to the world of DOFUS and Wakfu, two new classes!

• Remington Smisse, the Rogue:  An agile, charming and shrewd bandit who has become a master of petty theft.
• Maskemane, the Masqueraider: Owns three masks that he can switch around in order to use their different powers.

These two new classes will be playable on DOFUS, Dofus-Arena and Wakfu. Ankama will be bringing them to their next convention, which will celebrate Ankama’s 10th anniversary.  Attendees will get the chance to play with the new classes.

Hair doesn’t give you strength?

Going against Greek mythology, Dungeon Fighter: Online releases it’s new update in “Act V: The Reckoning.”  And who is the one getting the haircut and the pumped up muscles?  None other than the Priest.  In this update you’ll find:

• Default skills will have “Smash” and remove the “Slow Heal” Skill.
• Added new Skills and awakenings to each of the three Priest subclasses.
• Crusader awakening to Paladin with the Disco ball Themed area of attack skill “Apocalypse”
• Monk’s  awakens to Templar with the “Big Bang Punch” skill
• Exorcist subclass features the “Blue Dragon Hammer” awakening skill.

This update also brings new epic quests and the difficulty level of some of the early quests  have been adjusted.

9Dradons Returns with a fist of fury!

This past summer, 9Dragons game services were abandoned by it’s previous publisher,, but now it’s back  in full swing.  GamersFirst will be handling the English language operation of the game, and  has been in high-gear to resume the game’s service.  Players can now download and play 9Dragons at www.GamersFirst.com/9Dragons. Whether you are new to the game or an old pro, you can take advantage of the Level up event running until November 21st! And if that wasn’t enough, you can also get Ext cards, Blood Essences, Panacea, Courier Passes and more!  So what are you waiting for?

Harvestmath Festival is here!

“Lord of the Rings Online” festivities started this week! Players can go apple Bobbing, pumpkin picking and get a limited edition skeleton horse mount, new quest, new deeds and new rewards.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Galactic Passport

Sony Online Entertainment LLC and LucasArts, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., it’s bringing us the Star Wars Clone Wars Adventure Galactic Passport.  This passport will be available at US retailers for a suggested price of $19.99.  The retail version will come with a 90-days premium Jedi Membership, 500 Station Cash,  the exclusive Togruta playable character species, a Yoda bobblehead monitor topper, additional digital content and more.

Champions Online: The Demonflame!

This is the second adventure pack for Champions, and it’s available now.  You can now explore brand new content across a wide range of levels and battle the horrors of the Qliphothic realm to foil Luther Blacks plans.   A few things that you can expect in the pack:

• Realm of Chaos: You can venture in to the chaotic expanses of the Qliphothic realm.
• Champions from lelvel 11-40 (solo or with friends) can play Demonflame. You can team up, or do it solo, adjusting the dificulty level of the enemies.
• New demon devotees: including Jack Fool, The Left Hand and Luther Black.
• UNTIL’s Project Hermes: earn UNTIL Merits from Project Hermes to buy special costume pieces, action figures, devices and much more.

So how can all this get any better?  Simple…IT’S FREE!!!

Pandora Saga revealed by Atlus Online:

Speaking of free, Atlus Online is bringing us a new, free to play, MMORPG set in a fantasy world embroiled in a sweeping, player driven war, coming to us in early 2011. Some of it’s key features are:

• War of tremendous scale–With an emphasis on PvP action and a variety of immense theatres of war upon which to wage battle, some of Pandora Saga’s greatest conflicts can host as many as 600 combatants.
• Real-time, strategy–laced combat-Breaking from genre traditions, attacks occur in real-time based on user inputs.  Bonuses based on player tactics, such as the direction from which an enemy is attacked, can be exercised by either combatant, making for exceptionally tense PvP encounters.
• A world full of meaningful choices–Ally with one of three major nations, join a guild (or create your own), and explore a variety of deep customization options.  Combat-related choices, such as managing defensive strong points across  the game world’s many vast battlefields and one’s preference for how to enter battle (on horseback, for example), highlight Pandora Saga’s fast, action-packed battles.

Bloodline Champions beta free access:

Bloodline Champions is a next generation arena based, PVP online game developed by Stunlock Studios and published by Funcom. Funcom and IGN/FilePlanet have launched an exclusive beta initiative, giving out free access to the closed beta test.   This offer is only available exclusively on IGN/FilePlanet for a limited time only. To take advantage of the offer, visit the beta page on IGN/FilePlanet.

Dungeons & Dragons Online gets a free Adventure pack:

This is the first biggest update since the game went “free-to-play” last year. This massive update brings us two new races (Half-orc  and half-elves), a new adventure pack, a new premium raid and more.

• Half- orcs are powerful creatures that excel at destruction and offer players a bonus modifier to strength.  The Half-elf are well rounded creatures that excel at manipulating monsters with their social graces and offer players an advantage in managing the battle and assisting their party.
• New 12-player Raid: The Chronoscope 12-player raid, designed for level 6 players plus an Epic difficulty setting for level 20 characters, will take them back to the events leading up to the devastating destruction of the Marketplace.
• Adventure Pack: Deception in Stormreach – during the course of their adventures, players will discover that Droaam has landed an army in Stormreach and is about to launch an attack on the city.  This new series of three level 12 adventures from DDO is free to all players.
• New live event: Endless night – Players are invited to join DDO’s newest in-game event called Endless Night.  This seasonal event will occur in Delera’s Graveyard outside House Jorasco and will require players to band together to defeat various types of undead monsters and collect festival pieces that will unlock the main event, an climactic battle with and all new monster — a spectraldragon!

And the goodies just keep on coming!  Get an account here: Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Heroes of Three Kingdoms gets a content update :

And will finished this Slash info with the new update for Heroes of Three kingdoms  video. This video gives you a look into the new race “Miao” among other goodies.  Enjoy!   Three Kingdoms

The link will be optional to all users, so those who may not want to link and share their exploits can choose not to. I do think the ability to be able to see who all on my Facebook friends is on Battle.net will be great for Starcraft II as well as WoW. I’ll be interested to see what the full functionality will be like and if they may add in anything special to the mix. You can read the full press release here.

The Threat of the Conqueror adds more than 200 new cards, 30 of which are loot cards, to the game, bringing the total number of cards to more than 1,800. The new cards will feature unique keyword abilities that grant “Intel” labeled units additional bonus powers when they come into play, allowing for more options within a round and enable stacking “Reinforcement” bonuses which adds the ability to play additional reinforcement units as the length of play increases.

This expansion also introduces new cards to the Star Wars Galaxies TCG including player-created art cards, one of which is rebel-themed, one imperial-themed, and one neutral-themed. These cards are the prizes from the Galactic Civil War Photo Contest.

Star Wars Galaxies TCG is the first-ever Star Wars TCG offered only online. Available to both current and former Star Wars Galaxies subscribers, the TCG offers players an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a tcg with the adventures and community of a MMO game. Players can build their own decks to fight in story mode, participate in one-on-one matches, co-op encounters, and official tournaments.

For those of you interested, all Star Wars Galaxies subscribers with current, valid, paid accounts are automatically eligible to receive five digital booster packs each month, letting them get more cards for their deck easier. Anyone that’s hesitant about jumping into a trading card mmo, you can download the trial that allows access to a tutorial and practice games with starter decks. The trial and expansion can be found at www.StarWarsGalaxies.com/tradingcardgame

Heatwave also obtained a source code license to the PlayGrid Platform, an online game publishing technology as well as acquiring two game development engines. The engines have been used in the past for both Gods & Heroes development and the development of Star Trek Online.

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising is a full-scale action adventure MMO steeped in Roman mythology. Players battle monsters and command minions while seeking favor from the gods. Back at E3 2006, it was dubbed “Best in Show” by leading MMO sites Allakhazam and TenTonHammer, and “Game of Show” and “Best Graphics” by MMORPG, Gods & Heroes was in closed beta when production ended in 2007.

Check out some pictures of what you have to look forward to (it’s understandable that you may have forgotten!) in the gallery below.

In LEGO Universe, you can build items to your heart’s content, participate in battles, play minigames, and a lot more. Parents get almost complete control over their kids’ activities in game, with the ability to limit them to certain areas or activities as well as the ability to set a time limit. (Naturally, if you’re not a child, you can play however you wish and without Mom’s permission.) Since the game is likely to be released on a subscription model, beta testing now is a pretty good way to get to play for free before the actual version hits, even though you’re likely to run into some bugs.

The official version will be released sometime in 2010.

A quote from the CEO of Uforia, JK Kim, says: “We are excited about Camon Hero because it it such a unique addition to the Uforia portfolio. While there are many choices in the MMORPG category today, it is rare to find a game that offers players a chance to experience a trading card game and MMORPG all in one.”

In the game itself, players will travel through the land of Aria hoping to save its inhabitants from the forces of darkness. During the quests, players will find mystical cards that let them have the ability to summon creatures and other people to aide them in battle so they won’t be alone on the dangerous quest. Unlike other trading card game infusions, the battles will be played out in real time while featuring familiar play and style made for the trading card genre.

There are no fixed classes, which is a blessing for many MMORPG players out there. Players can customize their character’s stats so they can wield magic and melee weapons, or they can specialize in one or the other. Like good trading card games, Camon Hero hopes to give players the option to customize and create their own style of playing. The power to perform skills is bound to cards so that possibilities in combat become endless. Deciding what cards to include in their summon hand and managing Stack Cooldown Times help maintain control of the field at all times.

Camon Hero will feature both PvE (player vs environment) field combat and instanced mission based combat. Bosses test the skills of the players. There is also the PvP option, so players can have it out with each other to practice or just improve their skills.

For more information, to watch the trailer, or register, visit http://camonhero.uforia.com/.