Many people have been complaining in both Oblivion and Skyrim because they have to do everything by themselves. However, many gamers’ prayers have been answered. Zenimax Media has announced The Elder Scrolls Online, which will take the franchise in a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) direction for the first time, beginning in 2013.
 
According to Game Informer, the game will take place “a millennium before the events of Skyrim,” and will also feature three warring player factions that can quest alone or in groups and engage in PvP (Player vs Player) combat. More details will apparently be revealed soon through trailers, screenshots, and interviews in the next few weeks.
 
The Elder Scrolls Online will be developed by Zenimax Online Studios, founded back in 2007. The Maryland-based gaming studio has yet to release a game, but they hired hundreds of people last year for an Ireland-based customer support center. Zenimax does have potential though, as it was founded in part by Matt Firor, a Mythic Entertainment veteran known for his work on Dark Age of Camelot.
 
“It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years,” Firor told Game Informer. “The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made—and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”
 
Source: Ars Technica

A recent report suggests that buying a game console may soon become more like a cell phone plan. Apparently, Microsoft may soon begin offering a $99 bundle including a 4GB Xbox 360 and Kinect sensor if the buyer commits to two years of a new, $15 monthly online service package.
 
You may have noticed that $15 per month would actually be more than the current Xbox Live Gold membership. That is because along with that subscription, users will receive “unspecified additional content” from cable or live sports video providers. According to The Verge, this package and plan may be available “as early as next week” in Microsoft’s retail stores.
 
A plan like this would help to move Xbox closer to their goal of being a full-service living room entertainment center, rather than primarily as a video game console. Microsoft has been trying to move towards an entertainment center for years, with its accumulation of entertainment apps, such as Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, HBO and UFC, and diverse family games available in the Game Marketplace.
 
This two-year bundle comes in at a total of $459. As it stands, Microsoft charges $418 for a 4GB Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle ($299) and two years of Xbox Live Gold ($59/year). Only time will tell if the extra unspecified content is worth the difference and considered a deal rather than an option.
 
Source: Ars Technica

There is quite the stir in the Senate, and it’s all due to a bill named CISPA, which is the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Despite it being frowned upon by the White House, digital privacy groups and most Democrats, along with it going pretty much unknown until recently, CISPA has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 248-168.
 
Supporters of CISPA state that the bill will improve the government’s ability to strengthen cyber security and share information among intelligence agencies and the private sector. Opponents to CISPA state that it is overly broad and stomps on privacy.
 
“The White House believes the government ought to control the Internet, government ought to set standards, and government ought to take care of everything that’s needed for cybersecurity,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a supporter of the bill, told reporters at his weekly news conference. “They’re in a camp all by themselves.”
 
While Boehner may have a really one-sided view and seems pretty ignorant, civil libertarians also spoke about CISPA.
 
“CISPA goes too far for little reason,” said Michelle Richardson, ACLU legislative counsel, in a statement on Thursday. “Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans’ online privacy. As we’ve seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there’s no going back. We encourage the Senate to let this horrible bill fade into obscurity.”
 
There is no need to fear just yet, my friends. We took down PIPA, SOPA, and ACTA. We can do it again. This bill will still need to pass the Senate before it reaches President Obama’s desk. Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget stated that it recommends a presidential veto should CISPA make it that far. I think I stand by the majority when I say I agree with them.
 
Source: Ars Technica

Two days after President Obama and the United States government began new sanctions in Syria and Iran to “hold accountable those who assist in or enable such [human rights] abuses through the use of information and communications technology,” China has began stepping up to the plate. They have decided to do an online crackdown.
 
China has been involved in a massive political scandal involving Bo Xilai, a Chinese politician who was a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party before his obstruction of justice charges in a murder case involving his wife. Yesterday, China has decided to delete the accounts of several users on Sina Weibo, the Chinese clone of Twitter. These accounts included “that of Li Delin, a senior editor of the Chinese business magazine Capital Week, whose March 19 post helped fuel rumors of a coup in Beijing,” according to The Wall Street Journal. After the deletion, Li has since been detained by Chinese authorities.
 
“The episode demonstrated both the power of China’s new digital media and the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly iron-fisted effort to control it,” the WSJ added. “In the wake of the coup rumors, authorities announced the detention of six people in relation to the rumors and the arrest of more than 1,000 others for what the authorities said were Internet crimes.”
 
Source: Ars Technica

I have met a few good friends from the world of massively multiplayer games. However, that doesn’t mean that it should be encouraged. Sometimes this can be a risky move and is exactly the kind of thing we tell children to never, ever do. Well, Sony is thinking the complete opposite. They have even patented a method for “coordinating real-world gatherings to promote online community.”
 
The patent was filed back in 2010 and was approved last week. It notes that “anonymity and the lack of real-world connection” makes it difficult to create real and meaningful connections with strangers online. It outlines a method for providing in-game rewards to players that attend these gatherings, as shown in the image above.
 
There is more than likely some way that this idea has already happened and will make it unpatentable. It almost seems like Sony is just trying to set up to be a patent troll, to be honest, for this idea seems really basic and original. Take it for what it is, though. At least it seems like Sony is in fact looking to start hosting huge gatherings, perhaps similar to BlizzCon.
 
Source: Ars Technica

The last time Valve made any kind of announcement about the next release in the Half-Life series was back in 2008. Way back then, all they did was hint at a 2010 release. However, it’s clearly 2 years beyond that and we are still left without another game. And Half-Life was a pretty good game, so many people have been anticipating a release for quite some time. In a recent interview, Valve co-founder and Managing Director Gabe Newell suggested that being quiet is better than giving false information about a game that is still not even close to being complete.
 
Now, next up is some of the interview. Newell talks about Richochet 2, but the context surrounding the questioning and the answer suggests that he is simply using it in place of the next Half-Life. This would also help to make more sense of a “giant story arc.”
 
“In terms of Ricochet 2,” Newell explained, “we always have this problem that when we talk about things too far in advance we end up changing our minds as we’re going through and developing stuff, so as we’re thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you’re saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we’d like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2.”
 
“The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we’re going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what’s happening next,” he continued.
 
Source: Ars Technica

As you may have heard about, or noticed that I posted two days ago, a glitch was found of a playable Diablo III ”Starter Edition.” Because of this leak, Blizzard has decided to go ahead and test their servers. They have announced that they will be opening the game’s beta up for a server stress test this entire weekend.
 
So who can join and partake in the chaos of Diablo III? Anyone with a valid Battle.net account will be able to play the open beta this weekend. People can download the game now and play until 10AM PT Monday morning. Players will be able to get up to level 13 in this open beta. Open beta users will be able to have the full features of the game with the exception of the in-game auction house.
 
Once the open beta closes, the closed beta players will be able to keep playing until the beta ends on May 1. Once the beta closes, users will only have to wait until the official May 15 release date to begin playing again. Diablo III is finally nearing, and I, along with many others around the world, cannot wait to start playing!
 
Source: Ars Technica

Anders Behring Breivik is a 33-year-old Norwegian man who admitted to killing 69 people in a rampage and eight more in a bombing last July. He has stated during his trial that he “prepared” for the attacks by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Apparently he did this so that he could practice “target acquisition” and gain experience with holographic sights.
 
“If you are familiar with a holographic sight, it’s built up in such a way that you could have given it to your grandmother and she would have been a super marksman. It’s designed to be used by anyone. In reality it requires very little training to use it in an optimal way. But of course it does help if you’ve practiced using a simulator.”
 
In addition to using Call of Duty as a way to prepare, he also admitted to owning a stash of weapons that he would practice with often at firing ranges. His testimony mentioned his obsession with World of Warcraft, which he would play for up to 16 hours a day during a sabbatical from work. When prosecutors said that his obsessive WoW playing may have assisted his instability, Breivik said that the game was only a hobby. “Some people like to play golf, some like to sail, I played WoW,” he said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with July 22.”
 
Source: Ars Technica