It would be almost impossible for us to do, and this is a philosophical decision. We need to put a structure in place for players where they feel that if they do more difficult encounters, they'll get rewarded for it. As soon as we give more equal rewards across the board, for a lot of players it will diminish the accomplishment of killing something like Nefarian. My favorite times in the development cycle are when there are encounters that are close to being defeated but have not yet been beaten. It really creates a sense of awe among the players that there is something big and truly dangerous in the world. But it would be very disappointing if the items found on Nefarian were the same thing you could get in your nightly Stratholme run.

What Tigole misses, I think, is the fact that non raid instances need not be easy like Stratholme. That there exists players at 60, who do play 14 hours a day, but simply dislike the dynamics of a 40 man raid where each player is assigned a one dimensional role.

It appears that there is no difficulty to make a 5 man instance hard, such as for example of comparable difficulty to UBRS, except with a 5 man limit. In which case, completing the instance would be a challenge deserving of epics.

Well, here, I'll stop ranting. Take a look for yourself, it's definately worth your time!

Blizzard announced yesterday, that they will be hosting a Starcraft Invitational tournament in Seoul, Korea on February 3-5.

You'll be happy to know, if you were one of the top Warcraft 3 Players in this seasons ladder, you will also be going to duke it out in the finals!

For full details, check out http://www.blizzard.com, or go to http://www.worldofwarcraft.co.kr/wwi2006/ for the events website (FYI, it's in Korean).

Starcraft

Warcraft 3

Diablo 2

World of Warcraft

There will be a separate contest for each game.

The basics for the competition are simple:

Browse your screenshots, or log on and make a new one, of something eye-catching, something humourous, something serious, whatever it may be, and then open up the ol’ photo-editing program. Got an artistic touch? Show us Diablo destroying Tristram? How about Ragnaros spawning in the Great Forge? Or maybe you’re the humourous type. Edit the image in such a way to make us lose our lunch from laughing too hard! Thought of a caption that is just perfect for your screenshot? Let us see it!

All we ask is that you follow a few simple guildlines:

• First, you must be a registered user on our Forums in order to post screenshots. Registering only take a few short minutes, and you’re set up to post in any public forum, send private messages to your friends, play games in the arcade, and much more!
• Second, while everyone can enjoy a beautiful screenshot, the contest is based around the photoshopping of said screenshot. Images that have not been altered in a major fashion will be ineligible and dismissed.
• Next, be sure you upload your screenshot-photoshop to a separate location that allows hotlinking. There are plenty of sites that allow you to do so for free, and as such, all uploaded files will be removed, and an email sent to the user requesting a hot link be added instead.
• Finally, please refrain from posting any that is vulgar or obscene in any form or fashion. Such screenshots will be deleted upon sight, and the poster suspended from activity. Let’s think of the youngun’s, here.

Now, you’re probably asking to yourself, "What’s the point? Why do I want to put all that effort into something?"

Well, there are many answers to such a question: It’s a chance for newcomers to show your artistic and creative sides, a chance for you to get to know some of the community here at Infoceptor ™, and also a chance for members of our community to surprise some old friends with some amazing artwork. Furthermore, the winners in each game category will receive a custom award Icon for the prospective game they submitted their screenshots for. This will be in recognition of your artistic talent, and will show the community and visitors alike of your participation in this contest. Also, the winners from each category will be recognized and their images shown on the main fansite page for all to see as a way to congratulate them.

When your screenshot-photoshop is completed, log onto the Infoceptor Forums and post your artwork in the prospective thread:

Starcraft Contest

Warcraft 3 Contest

Diablo 2 Contest

World of Warcraft Contest

More details concerning what or how to post are included inside each thread.

Submissions for this contest will be accepted up until Thursday, January 26^th, at 12:01am CST (GMT -6), so be sure to have your submissions in before that time. After said time, submissions will be closed, and the artwork will be organized into a new thread wherein your peers will cast their vote for their favourite piece.

Note: Each category must have at least 8 entries to be eligible for a vote.

All are welcome to participate, and we strongly encourage visitors to take part in this event, and we would love to get to see your artistic side and get to know you a little better!

Good luck to all!