Nor has beta testing even begun. But the little we do know about Starcraft 2 have moved some people to begin complaining about class imbalances already. So really, that’s the point? There’s already enough info to whet the appetite. FYI, Gamestop is currently taking pre-orders (as of July 7). When pressed, the salespeople say they have an “October date” on the computer. Which means it would release before Wrath of the Lich King and that’s just impossible. Nice one, Blizzard! They are really tricky over there at Irvine, CA. Or Paris, France (home to Vivendi), whatever. Let’s hope it’s not too much longer.

And since I’m such a fanboy fan of all things Starcraft, and one of my “news” filters being “Starcraft”, I came across this article called the “Top 5 needed nerfs for Starcraft 2“. Check out #1, the Battlecruiser. Although I played Random, I was always partial to Terran; a well executed tank push being the wall-of-death that it is. So you know I’m really ecstatic about the battlecruiser making a return in the sequel.

The author notes that 8 battlecruisers can clear the map, and for that reason calls them “overpowered”. But because of the unit price and minerals required, I am sure by the time you have such an advanced air fleet, your opponent (if you’re evenly matched) will have an army equal in pwnage. That’s if your base wasn’t already ravaged by the terrifyingly awesome Colossus (#4), the new Protoss ground unit that can walk up and down different levels of terrain (yikes!).

Until we get more news, I’ll be combing the rumor mills, and reporting back to you. If someone has an inside tip, send me a line! Much appreciated.

I was playing WoW the other day - and felt a rumbling…

So I picked up a bag of potato chips, none other than the delicious Cheetos. I was hungrier than usual, so I attacked the bag with a fervor normally reserved for the newest OK! magazine and expensive Apple products. Usually with messy (and smelly) snacks, I like to eat them with chopsticks to preserve the pristine-ness of my hands. But that was not to happen this day…Probably because if you’ve ever gamed (PC or console), you know you need to use BOTH hands. What a mess I made! Had to wipe down and blow compressed air through the keyboard. I thought it was fortunate that I had a black keyboard (and therefore the orange mess would not be easily seen) but instead, it just looked like my gaming setup was attacked by an angry Halloween ghost. Oh well!

Tilo’s tip for successful gaming# 1: Try not to eat something that will undermine the integrity of your keyboard/mouse/controller, anything hot that you can drop on your lap, anything that requires two hands, and anything that may make you run to the bathroom without sufficiently being able to warn your raid-mates. Remember, there are few greater crimes than passing along a greasy controller.

Recently, Forbes published an article about the fact that women play video games too. In fact, they are the driving forces behind such mega internet hits as “Diner Dash” and popular Facebook games (Scrabulous). In fact, these casual games are growing 20% year over year! It finally seems like game developers are clueing into this fact, developing casual “games for girls”. I mean, it’s something I always knew, it’s not that girls don’t play video games, they just play different types of games! But don’t be so quick to label girl gamers as just “casuals”, I know plenty of girls that can kick butt in WoW, Halo, and other “hardcore” games as well!

Oh, and Happy Easter from mmochi!

Hi and welcome to mmochi! You must be wondering what the name means, and maybe even how to say it? It’s “mo-chee” and traditionally, it’s a yummy, ice cream dessert. But in this case, it’s my internet dream and I’ll tell you the start of it all.

I used to PVP grind for about 40 hours a week. Give or take 15 hours, if you included raiding. Work/life/game balance was just a pipe dream. Sometimes I’d play with my guild, sometimes alone, and I got to know many, many people on my server really well, and many people who played the game in general – I mean, how can you not, considering how many hours I was logged on? And yes, I knew them; I knew how their character had the awesomest gear, whether they were alchemists or fire mages, and how they were gathering materials for a new sword. And during breaks in the game (occasionally, there were some), we’d get to know more about the team members. Like, who needed to afk midway during the raid to cook for the family, who had to take off for a month to prep for finals, who was between jobs, etc.

And when we weren’t playing the game, we were chatting on the forums. And of course, the posts with the most threads were usually the posts regarding “Real Life” info. Like, real life photos, real life meet ups, real life advice for real life problems,etc. And I definitely partook in those conversations. I wanted to get to know my in-game friends. But our guild and clan websites were always kind of lame, they didn’t allow us to host as many pictures, FRAPS videos, and the private messaging kind of sucked. And worse, only guild members ever went to our site! If we wanted to talk to other people from the game, we would have to go to their guild website (and sometimes you couldn’t even find it on google) or convene on a more well-known public forum.

So a light went off in my head and mmochi was born.

The first three letters of mmochi stand for “massive multiplayer online”, in case you didn’t get it by now. I thought that if I could create a cool and interesting website, that gamers would come, create a profile, and stay awhile. We’d all hang out and get to know each other – in a Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood kind of way. “If you build it, they will come.” So whenever you have comments or feedback, please let me know here.

We can be the best gaming community on the web.