Living in the era of the Copy Cat, one has to ask if we really do have an overload of video games. Guitar Hero III comes out, Rock Band isn’t too far behind. Enjoy Dynasty Warriors? Samurai Warriors came out as an answer to that. And who can forget the countless MMORPGs that blossomed and branched out of The Realm (which brags about being the first and longest-played graphic MMORPG). You have creations such as Everquest, Eve Online, and the still ever-popular, World of Warcraft.

Do we have too many video games? I say no. Granted, each company is marketing their own copy of what’s flying off the shelves, but each also adds their personal flavor to it. It’s like choosing Wendy’s over McDonald’s. You know what you’re getting, it’s just a matter of which taste you prefer more.

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In July, Curse.com will launch a premium subscription service for $4 per month. Curse hopes to tally 100,000 subscriptions by the end of ‘09. Currently, it’s anyone’s guess as to what these “premium perks” will be, but some speculate that they will be out-of-game services, such as player profiles. Let’s just hope that these new features are worth the gallon of gas that Curse hopes to charge on top of your monthly WoW payment.

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On June 7th, 150 gamers opened up their wallets and their hearts to participate in a huge LAN tournament hosted by Intel. For a $35 entrance fee, gamers were able to compete against one another in titles such as Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Battlefield 2, and Guitar Hero III. All entrance fees benefited Robert Family Development Center and The United Way California Capitol Region.

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This week WoW Insider is giving some love to an under-appreciated MMO class: the tanks. For those of you who are unaccustomed to MMO nomenclature, Blizzard defines a tank as “a character designed to take a lot of damage from enemies and thereby protect the rest of the party.” In WoW, tanks include Protection Warriors, Protection Paladins, and Feral Druids.

In short, the purpose of a tank is to take enemies’ attention away from the group, absorbing damage for the party and keeping enemies away from members of the party who are not suited to take much damage, such as Mages and Priests. To do this in WoW, tanks must use often unique abilities, such as “Taunt” or a ranged attack, to lead enemies to them and away from everyone else.

WoW Insider brings up some interesting points about tanking in the article:
- There is a huge responsibility that comes with tanking; tanks are often blamed when things go wrong for the group.
- Tanking can be a repetitive task relative to other roles in an instance/raid.
- Between repairs and respeccing, tanking can be costly, even though the rewards to being a tank are the same as for the rest of the members of an instance/raid
- It is even more crucial for tanks to do their recon work before jumping into an instance/raid than other members of the group, because they often have to lead the group into battle.
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