A man in Southern China has died of exhaustion after a three-day online gaming binge, reports Beijing News.

The30-year old man declared dead in cyber caf� in the city of Guangzhou onSaturday afternoon. Paramedics on the scene tried to revive the man butfailed.

The report says a hundred other net users "left thecafe in fear" after witnessing the man's death. It wasn't noted whichgame the man was playing, but we're sure everyone has the usualsuspects in mind.

Back in 2005 a South Korean man died after playing StarCraft for 50 hours in an internet caf�.

Psychologist Professor Mark Griffiths told the BBCthat playing excessively was "not a problem" for the majority ofgamers, but warned that online addiction is becoming a phenomenon for asmall minority.

"They are the types of games that completely engross the player. Theyare not games that you can play for 20 minutes and stop," he said.

"It is not taken seriously yet - it is the same for internet addiction."

Several clinics have already been set-up in China to treat "internetaddiction," although we suspect it'll be a long time before thetreatment is available to even a small portion of the country's 140million internet users....

Pirates are cool; everyone knows that.   From Long John Silver to Jack Sparrow to Guybrush Threepwood, Pirates have been part of popular culture for a while and (thanks to The Muppets, Disney and Talk Like a Pirate Day) Pirates are cooler than ever. 

Join us in our exclusive article with interview bits from Kevin "Isildur" Maginn, Lead Designer of Pirates of the Burning Sea

Character Creation

(A Game With Pirates)

Pirates of the Burning Sea isn't just a pirate game though- it's a game with pirates, traders, privateers and naval officers,inspired as much by Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey as by Blackbeardand Black Bart.  The non-pirate players can pick from three nations:British, Spanish or French:
"Your character's capabilities aren't changed by choice of nation (with the exception of pirates)", Lead Designer Kevin ‘Isildur’ Maginn told us.  "However,the national starting positions, available resources, and content areall different -- in the case of the starting positions and resourceavailability, this is a very significant difference between them.  TheFrench, for instance, are caught in Florida between the Pirate startingarea and the PvP-prone Cuba, which leads to a much mor

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Ubisoft has announced the opening of a new game development studio in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

UbisoftChengdu, which will be headed up by Richard Tsao, formerly a seniorproducer at Ubisoft’s Shanghai studio, will initially focus on internaloutsourcing before developing online titles for PC, consoles andhandhelds.

 

The new studio will look to emulate thesuccess of Ubisoft’s Shanghai studio which houses Ubisoft’ssecond-largest development team. Ubisoft Chengdu will initially stafften team members, a number the firm hopes will grow to 200 developersover the next year.

 

“The success of our studio inShanghai, which has been further confirmed with the launch of TomClancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for the PlayStation 3system, has encouraged us to extend our growth in China,” saidChristine Burgess-Quémard, executive director of Ubisoft’s WorldwideStudios.

 

“We are convinced that Chengdu offers theperfect environment for our expansion, offering a great number ofhighly educated and talented people,” he added.

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I have just launched a fun and exciting new contest!

This time, I want to see real life pictures of you guys posing asdifferent Hellgate: London classes. (ie. You can pose as Blademaster,Evoker, Marksman, etc)


Note : All photos / entries should be posted on this thread.


Contest details

Type

Real Life Photos Contest – Submit in real life photos of yourself in various Hellgate: London class poses!

Contest Period

13th September 2007 – 27th September 2007

Contest Rules :

• This contest is open to the Community from all regions.

• You will require an IAHGames passportin order to partake in this contest and the winner will be contactedvia the e-mail address that he / she registered the IAHGames passportaccount with.
Please ensure that your e-mail address is accurate and valid.

• Please only submit in real life photos of yourself. No drawings,screenshots, etc will be allowed. Also, please include the descriptionof your pose in your submission (Example: “Female Marksman ready tokick demon butt”) so we know who / what you’re posing as.

• Group pictures are allowed but please ensure that they are all related to the contest theme - “Hellgate: London Class Poses”.

• You may dress up anyway, add any prop










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Members of our community will get a special in-game item for one of the nicest perks in Hyboria.

We're pleased to officially reveal the secret item granted to Clan ofConan members and bring you the first images of the Drinking Cape. 

 

 

 

 Inaddition to looking stylish in the tavern and impressing all thewenches, the Drinking Cape comes with the best perk in Hyboria: freedrinks for life.

Drinking is not only a fun way to get to knowyour friends and pick up wenches (or man-wenches, if that's yourthing), it also is a key component in the Drunken Brawling PvPminigame. Those who don the Drinking Cape before strutting into thetavern get free drinks for life, meaning they can brawl to theirdrunken heart's content in all the taverns of Hyboria without losingany money. It's all the benefits of drinking with none of the sideeffects, truly a wonderous thing to the barbarian's heart.

TheDrinking Cape features a leopard skin lining to keep you warm onceyou're thrown out into the cold night, while its stylish insignia letseveryone know that they're about to take on a world-class drinker,fighter, and all around awesome person, be it in the tavern brawl,stumbling home afterwards, or on the battlefie

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We’re pleased to announce the very first Lineage® II Comic Contest! Turn your Lineage® IIadventures and follies into an entertaining comic for your chance towin some fantastic prizes. Are your drawing skills limited to stickfigures? No problem! We’ll be accepting Lineage® II comicsfeaturing every medium, from hand-drawn to computer graphics to in-gamescreen-shots, and even photos! Remember that the comic should be fun toread, first and foremost.

Enter your best creation for your chance to win rare Lineage® II items, such as a beautiful Lineage® II dark elf statue, a Lineage® II art book that includes gorgeous concept art of the Kamael! Check out the full details here!

I have a dream.

Somewhere in the uncharted plains of videogame potential, in the wild primal cloud of yet-nascent human ideas, is my perfect heroine. I don't know what she looks like or where she's from, but I know she's a manifestation of despair and triumph, of trial and overcoming, of badass throw-down and ephemeral grace. She's a creature of fire and passion tempered by intellect, of depth and history and complexity. She will surprise me and challenge me, and when we bring down her arch-nemesis - perhaps a phantom from her past, perhaps a threat to all she stands for - our unified victory will be unmatched; the world will echo with the lamentation of our fallen foes.

And I know she has never seen life on the screen. This is not to disparage the recent upswing in engaging heroines: With Beyond Good and Evil's Jade and Half Life 2's Alyx Vance, Warcraft's Jaina Proudmoore and Dreamfall's April Ryan, the heroine scene is far from a hopeless one.

But there remains, in the heroine topography of the collective fabric of the game world, something missing, something unsatisfying. And the fact we can count satisfying heroines on one hand isn't reassuring, either. So I set out to find what

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This year's Austin Game Developer's Conference kicked off with akeynote speech from Blizzard president and cofounder Mike Morhaime.Entitled "How to Rule the World (of Warcraft) – 10 Lessons," it was acondensed version of the wisdom accumulated throughout Blizzard'shistory since its founding, particularly the launch of World ofWarcraft and the rapid growth it necessitated. Highlights includeprioritizing gameplay above all else, building and protecting thecompany brand, and always taking the time to finish the game beforeshipping it. Morhaime also gave some interviews in the aftermath of thespeech, covering a wide range of topics.

GameSpot: Mike Morhaime's Keynote Address GameSpot: Mike Morhaime Interview Joystiq's Coverage Gamasutra's Coverage

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According to this page, those pre-ordering Hellgate: London will be eligible for a lifetime subscription to the online component:

This limited-time offer allows you to make a one-time purchaseof $149.99 USD to upgrade your Live online account to a lifetimesubscription*. Please note that this offer expires after November 30,2007. The Founders Offer will be available to you on your AccountManagement page once the retail game ships and you log into your Liveaccount.

Also worth noting is a lifetime subscription does not cover any expansions.

As covered earlier,the start date of the Hellgate: London beta is still up in the air. Theonly official hint we are given is “soon”. If you pre-ordered the gameand have received a pre-order card with a special code on it, lookslike you are good to go. You will still need to go ahead and create abeta account (mind the fact that this will be the same account used forretail).

As a sort of bonus, you will get a Dye Kit and Founders Offer(previously mentioned) once you redeem your pre-order code (andassumably create an account). The Dye Kit is basically the ability tocustomize the color of your armor in the “live” retail game(unavailable during beta). The c

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We're looking to fill out some pages in our World of Warcraft Guidewith more screenshots, and you can help. The current goal: morescreenshots of fishing. If your screenshot is selected, it will bedisplayed in the guide, along with your character name. So get outthere and fish up some good ones!