World of Warcraft user base continues to tumble

By Mike Flacy November 9, 2011

World-of-Warcraft — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Reported during a recent Activision Blizzard conference call, the subscriber base of the MMORPG World of Warcraft fell by another 800,000 players over a three month period. This constitutes a much larger decline than the lost 300,000 players that quit the game during the second quarter. The total user base now stands at approximately 10.3 million subscriptions, a large drop from a peak of about 12 million players during October 2010. Activision Blizzard attributes the decline to canceled subscriptions in Asian countries rather than North American players quitting the game. The company also hopes that the upcoming Mists Of Pandaria expansion pack will help bring veteran players back to the game as well as encourage new subscribers to sign up.

While the ongoing success of Modern Warfare 3 is certain to keep investors in Activision Blizzard happy with the company, after hours trading of the stock is down by about three percent following the World of Warcraft news. During the fourth quarter, the World of Warcraft player base faces a possible increase in defections to games like DC Universe Online that have been made free-to-play as well as new MMORPGs like Star Wars The Old Republic when it launches in December. Beyond the planned panda-themed expansion for World of Warcraft, company officials are looking into speeding up the development time between expansion packs to keep players interested in the game.

After going free-to-play, Sony Online Entertainment’s DC universe Online has skyrocketed by 1,000 percent. The player base that previous had about 30,000 players has grown to over 300,000. However, new players have been faced with long queues to access the game as Sony merged 26 servers down to a single server during August 2011. While certain restrictions limit players that want to play the game for free, players that continue to pay for the service get all all DLC packs for free as well as a larger number of inventory and character slots.

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Is Manor Lords multiplayer or co-op?

A medieval market in Manor Lords.

You can easily lose hours designing your village and appeasing your citizens in Manor Lords all by yourself. There are so many different avenues to achieve victory, but the only competition or help you can normally find is in the form of NPCs. Other factions around the map can be helpful or harmful depending on how you play, but what if you wanted to team up with a friend to combine resources, or perhaps compete to see who can crush the other first? Many strategy and city builders thrive on multiplayer components, but does Manor Lords offer those same modes? Make sure you know the answer before making your purchase if that's your intention.
Is there multiplayer or co-op in Manor Lords?
To cut to the chase, the answer is no. Manor Lords is a purely single-player experience through and through. There are no cooperative or competitive modes in the game at all, so there's no way to interact with anyone else either on PC or console. This game was just released out of early access, and there is plenty of content on the way, however, we regret to inform you that multiplayer is not in the plans for the time being.

One developer took to the Steam forums to release an FAQ on the game. One question specifically asked if there is any multiplayer or cooperative gameplay in the game. The response said that "he focus is on a refined single-player experience, with no multiplayer or cooperative modes planned at the moment."

Gaming

All console commands and cheats for Fallout: New Vegas

The courier holding a gun with a welcome sign in the background in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

From the moment you begin your adventure in Fallout: New Vegas, you've already cheated death. Your first playthrough of the game should be done as the developers intended, though maybe with a couple of mods to make the experience a little smoother, but nothing that breaks the game. That said, it's been over a decade since the game came out, so odds are you've already played through the intended way at least once. This is when you can have some fun tinkering with the game and play using console commands and cheats if you're on the PC version of the game. There are a ton of commands you can input to manipulate your character, the world, objects, and more. Here's a full rundown of all the cheats there are and how to activate them.
How to enter console commands
Opening up the command console to type in your cheats is just a single keystroke away. While in the game (not paused), hit the ~ key located below your escape key. This will remove your HUD and bring up the prompt to type in any of the below cheats.
All Fallout: New Vegas console commands and cheats

Because there are so many console commands, we're going to break them down into general categories to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for based on what you want to do.
Faction and reputation cheats
addreputation <form id> <variable> <amount> -- Increases your reputation with a faction.

Gaming

How to get a gun in Another Crab’s Treasure

Kril has a gun

Another Crab's Treasure no doubt looks like a kid-friendly game, but hiding beneath its charming and cute exterior is a challenging soulslike experience that can test the mettle of genre veterans. Those who either can't or don't want to engage with such intense difficulty throughout this underwater adventure can make great use of a variety of assists. Among these is a rather shocking, but hilarious option that can completely negate nearly all of the game's challenge while providing some laughs along the way. Here's how to get a gun in Another Crab's Treasure.
How to get a gun
To give yourself a gun in Another Crab's Treasure, head over to the Settings menu. Navigate to Assist Mode at the bottom of the menu, then scroll to the bottom once more to a setting called Give Kril a Gun. Toggle this on, then back out and resume your game to find that Kril now has a massive pistol on his back in place of a shell.

This new gun on your back provides you with more than just a funny visual, though -- it actually allows you to shoot and kill any enemy in a single hit, nearly eliminating all of the challenge from the game. Additionally, if you're after trophies or achievements, the first time you shoot a crab with the gun will also unlock "This Kills the Crab."