A bit late in the news, we know, but at least it's finally brought out here to our readers. Stripped off from the 3-man World of Warcraft Arena bracket charts it appears that the Horde took a serious beating at the first round of the BlizzCon Arena Tournament. All Horde teams, save for one, have been knocked off the main bracket a week ago.

Team Log, with members hailing from Sweden and Finland, was the sole surviving team for the Horde. Other Horde teams took to the lower bracket, so painfully named the "Losers Bracket," to regain their honor against other defeated teams. We're currently finding out the final results of the BlizzCon 2007 Arena Tournament. More on the winners as they come in.

 

Amidst all the Burning Crusade news, most of us almost forgot that the Day of Hearts is fast approaching. Yep, just a few weeks to go until Valentines Day 2007 goes in full swing. And just like last year, World of Warcraft has something up their sleeves that is sure to make your hearts melt.

The first to announce their Valentines Day activities is WoW Europe. They are currently holding a Valentine Card Contest to get you in the mood for some lovin'. Basically, you'd have to design a Valentine Card showing your love of WoW. The price, a Gurky key! Anyway, the contest will run from January 22 - February 2  and the number of entries is limited to five per household. Those who are eligible to participate are:

• Participants aged 15 or more residing in:
• France
• Belgium
• United Kingdom
• Luxembourg

• Participants aged 18 or more residing in:
• Germany
• Austria
• Sweden
• Finland
• Denmark
• Norway
• The Netherlands
• Spain
• Ireland

To read all about the contest, click on our read link below to know where to submit your entries and to check out the full terms and conditions of the contest. Good luck!

Are you a hard-core gamer? Can you afford to spend 100+ hours unlocking the secrets of Final Legendary Dragon Masters of the Enchanted Mystical Mana XXVII? If you've got that kind of patience, we salute you! Not everyone, however, has your special powers, and that is a rather important question that game developers will have to answer in the future.

Both hard-core and soft-core gamers want to have that experience of being inside another world and playing a rich narrative adventure. Hard-core gamers have the time to finish a role-playing game in the mythical 40-hour time limit, but soft-core gamers don't have that luxury. Also, while hard-core gamers (who are usually in their teens and often have less real-world distractions) can easily remove distractions from their mind and focus on the game in front of them, soft-core gamers (who are often older and have to juggle work, family, and gaming) are besieged with other things, such as the problems of taking care of kids or paying the rent.

The trouble now, as this Wired News feature states, is finding a way of supporting the fancies of both sets of gamers without cheapening the experience for either side. Clive Thompson writes, "If they develop a game aimed at the hard-core crowd, a wuss like me will almost certainly never finish it. If they do the opposite, the power cartel will blow through the game in (an) afternoon and feel justifiably ripped off."

Game designers are starting to hit the midpoint, with episodic installments to the Half Life series and the pick-up-and-play nature of Halo. These are only FPS games though, and with newer games for the next-gen being somewhat higher-priced than what we're used to (especially for Sony's console), both hard-core and soft-core gamers alike will have to hope that the newest set of games will really have something for everyone.

(Photo from www.virtualpilots.fi, taken July 1, 1999 in Lieksa, Finland. Thanks to Olli Korhonen. )

Despite their rather British-sounding name, "The Irresistible Blokes" are actually from the Land of the Suomi, Finland. As the Guild Wars: Factions World Championship draws near, the folks at NC Soft have been featuring interviews with participating guilds, grilling them about their practice drills, strategies and build philosophies.

While anyone could walk off with the trophy at this point, the Irresistible Blokes would seem to be real contenders. Here's the interview - decide for yourself.

Q. Who in your guild designs the team builds you use, or is it a group effort?
"Group effort. Each of us is used to playing certain classes, so best results come when everyone gives their opinion on their best classes."

Q. How much time do you guys spend practicing together?
"Our goal is to play four days a week, a few hours per day. Sometimes we play more, most of the time less."

Q. Does the guild usually use the same core players for all of its competitive matches, or do you switch out often?

"We only have about ten active players and a few semi-active players. Core classes like Monks and Warriors are played ninety-nine percent of the time with the same players."

Q. Is there anything special you do to prepare for a big event like the GWFC?

"It's the best time of summer here in cold Finland" [blogger's note: Finland is as far north as Alaska, so the Suomi are enjoying sunlight almost 24 hours a day] "so we're playing even less than normally! Hopefully we can practice some before the event."

Q. What guild do you think is your biggest competitor heading into the GWFC in Germany?

"There are no weak guilds in GWFC, but to name a strong one—The Last Pride [EvIL] is very good in important games."

Q. What guild's performance has surprised/impressed you the most during any of the seasonal playoffs?

"No big surprises so far. Mostly Harmless [MH] impressed us in the last playoffs with some nice gameplay, though."

Q. What was the guild's philosophy behind choosing the builds that they have run so far?
"Attack is the best defense. A mobile build with the ability to split effectively is a good way to fight many guilds out there that are prepared to fight eight-versus-eight."

Q. Did you choose your build to play to your team's strength, or what you felt was your foe's weakness?

"What we've found out is that we play our best when playing a build that meets our strengths rather than using counter builds".

Q. Which match do you feel was the most interesting/challenging for your guild?

"Every playoff game is a challenge; you should never underestimate the guilds that got into the top 16 of all the guilds out there. They're there for a reason. The game we enjoyed most was the Season 3, Round 2 game against No Clue [emt]."

Q. What has been the "highlight" moment for your team?

"The win against Clan Kgyu [KGYU] when our GWFC spot was secured."

The Guild Wars Factions Championship ("GWFC") series will be held in Leipzig, Germany later this month. It's open to all players, and there is over $100,000 (USD) worth of prizes at stake for the top ten guilds. More information is available at the GW website.