Iron Gaming

Diablo III has more or less been indirectly confirmed as not being set for a 2010 launch. At BlizzCon (a yearly convention held by Blizzard for its games, major updates), Blizzard stated that the two games there were set to be released are Starcraft 2 and a third WoW Expansion known as Cataclysm. CEO Mike Morhaime confirmed that Blizzard aims to have both games out by 2010.

Expect more details as BlizzCon continues!

In what was originally expected to be a 2009 4th quarter release date, Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that StarCraft II has officially been pushed back to the “first half of 2010″. The choice of words strongly indicates within the first six months of 2010 as opposed to the 1st quarter, a choice that likely will greatly sadden many anxious fans.

Posted on the Blizzard Forums by Cydra:

Today we announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will not be ready for release by the end of 2009. Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.

Our mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience. As part of that commitment, we will always take as much time as needed to ensure that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers. As we work to make Battle.net the premier online gaming destination, we’ll also continue to polish and refine StarCraft II, and we look forward to delivering a real-time strategy gaming experience worthy of the series’ legacy in the first half of 2010.

We will share more details about the beta, Battle.net, and StarCraft II’s launch in the future. Keep an eye on the official website at http://www.starcraft2.com for updates, and as always, thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support for StarCraft II and all of Blizzard Entertainment’s games.

Blizzard has long been known to release games ‘when-ready’, a policy few game companies have the luxury of implementing. Hopefully in the end, this bodes well for the game and the gaming community.

For years, players have developed external programs to help them along in slaying dragons, defending earth from invaders, or making that twelve year old punk cry to his mommy about someone cheating. While many of these programs definitely go over the top with what they do, in the last few years a new rise to these programs have come about.

Warcraft 3 has seen a massive influx of programs that help the player in his ability to create stable games, as well as keep track of certain players using programs such as Banlist and Listchecker. If you have player the ever popular Defence of the Ancients, or DotA for short, then you probably refuse to play a game that is not being hosted by one of these tools. Entire leagues are now hosted through the use of these third party programs, tracking everything from the number of games that someone has played to even his kill-death ratio over the entire time of him playing in the league. The newest program automatically hosts games without a player needing to do it.

Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Or MMO’s, have also seen third party programs takeover. These programs tend to work to affect a player’s User Interface, or UI. Timers on a player’s spells, special abilities that another player or mob might be casting, and so much more continue to aid the players in their quests. World of Warcraft players are all but required to use these programs if they wish to join others in the high end content of the game.

The real problem many game developers and players are starting to wonder about is where to draw the line in legal and illegal programs, aka game hacks. Hack programs give players what many consider as an unfair advantage. Anything from teleporting to wherever you wish to go in the game, to having the ability to see an entire map while you play, to creating your own items for a game have all been seen in games. Diablo 2 had a massive hacking problem that Blizzard was forced to ban thousands of account keys, although the real popularity of the game had already been on the decline.

The future of games will revolve around the relationship that a developer has with players creating these programs. Clearly developers have to keep the programs in line so hacking does not get out of control, but players need to have the ability to customize their gaming experience. One thing is sure though, third party programs are here to stay.

Club Nintendo accounts that achieved platinum or gold member status received awards by Nintendo on July 2, 2009.

Platinum members got to choose from “Doc Louis’s Punch Out!!” which is a spin off where Little Mac boxes his Trainer or a replica of Mario’s Hat. Both prizes are exclusive to Club Nintendo members.

Gold members received a 2010 Club Nintendo calender, not available in stores, which features artwork from various Nintendo games

Those who reached gold or platinum status had to register Nintendo products for coins. Nintendo DSi’s were 160 coins, Wii games 50 coins, Nintendo DS games 30 coins, and Virtual Console games from the Wii and the DSi were worth 10 coins apiece. To reach gold status, a member needed 300 coins from July 1, 2008 to June 31, 2009 while Platinum required 600 coins from the same time span.

On Sunday July 12th at 9:02 eastern standard time, it was determined that IronGaming.net would become the new domain of SCDiplo.com. We would like to thank the entire community for their efforts in coming up with a new suitable domain for our expansion efforts. The new website will have a special focus on games by Blizzard Entertainment while focusing on games from other companies as well. Wether its vintage or new, you will be able to find everything in the gaming world on this website. If you have any ideas on how to make this site more enjoyable and usable for our readers, sign up for our forums and leave a comment under Website Construction!

Thanks for Reading and have a wonderful Monday!

RIP SCDIPLO.COM