Posted 10/10/08 at 11:10:09 PM by Nathan Grayson

Quality may not always happily skip hand-in-hand with sales (See: Psychonauts, and then go buy it, please), but when it does, we wear unnaturally large smiles, ecstatic that there's justice in this cold, depressing world. You can imagine, then, that our pearly whites are on the verge of breaking free from our unhinged jaws thanks to Mythic's announcement that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has lured 750,000 players into its overtly war-packed world.

"Thanks to our players, the war between the Realms continues to escalate at an incredible pace," said Mythic co-founder and general manager Mark Jacobs.

And he's not just spouting nonsense from his PR-approved book of hyperbole either; Warhammer's 750k sprint has topped those of both World of Warcraft and Age of Conan, who reached similar numbers within three months and two months, respectively.

But don't start ordering Waaaagh Kool-Aid as a refreshment for WoW's funeral just yet. It should be noted that boxed copies of Warhammer Online came with a free one month voucher, cancelling out the game's subscription fee for a limited time. With the game's money vacuum soon to be fully operational, will players stick around for another month?

We sure hope so. Warhammer seems genuinely different from other MMOs, and it'd be a shame to see it sink. Also, gaming just wouldn't be fun anymore if we couldn't constantly tell our friends "It's 'hammer time," before darting off for a play session.

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gaming, Software, news, world of warcraft, mmo, Mythic, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online

Posted 10/10/08 at 01:25:21 PM by Paul Lilly

It would take three hands with all digits intact to match the number of buttons on SteelSeries' new World of Warcraft MMO mouse. That's right - 15 programmable buttons grace the rodent's funky cyborgish exterior, and each one of them was designed in conjunction with Blizzard specifically with WoW addicts in mind.

The new mouse level's up its macros skillset by affording macros up to 160 characters long, with over 130 predefined commands for drag-and-drop macro creation in place. But you might find yourself spending the majority of your time grinding away at the light scheme. The world's first WoW mouse boasts no less than 16 million illumination choices with 3 intensity and pulsation levels.

Dedicated MMO players can preorder the mouse now for $99.99, with shipping slated for November 13, 2008.

Update: Press release and another image after the jump!

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world of warcraft, mouse, Peripherals, build a pc, steelseries

Posted 10/01/08 at 04:10:49 PM by Andy Salisbury

Anyone that plays World of Wacraft will know all about the woes of bots. They provide players with unfair advantages, and the ability to level their character when they’re not even at their computer. Blizzard has been aware of this as well, having recently won a lawsuit against the bot program MMOGlider’s creator, MDY Industries.

For those that don’t know, MMOGlider is a third party application that runs the many repetitive tasks involved in World of Warcraft. Whether it’s leveling your character up from 1 to 70 or grinding for leatherworking materials, the application can do it for you. And the best part about it? You don’t even have to be at your computer, you simply run a script that sends your character in a pre-determined route.

Blizzard’s lawsuit is based on MMOGlider’s automation of said repetitive tasks. Using this application to complete these tasks breaks the terms of service that players agree to when they play World of Warcraft. The software is said to have sold 100,000 copies for $25 a piece.

While admittedly $6 million is no small number (unless you’re Blizzard), the amount could have been higher if MDY hadn’t won some of the prior arguments about the claimed damages in court. But there’s still a possibility for more, should Blizzard decided to appeal the judgment in favor of going for their original claim, which was double or triple that number.

The remainder of the case is set to go to court in January 2009, where the last of the issues in the legal conflict are likely to be settled.

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gaming, Software, world of warcraft, blizzard, MMOGlider, Blizzard Entertainment

Posted 09/17/08 at 09:37:40 PM by Nathan Grayson

As we've become painfully aware over the past couple of weeks, game publishers will do just about anything if it means pointing an over-sized foam middle-finger in piracy's direction. But, with EA's recent decision to plunge a grimy claw into an old wound that was finally beginning to scar over, another lesson has been hammered into our collective conscious: DRM doesn't work. It alienates legitimate customers and pushes budding pirates right over the edge.

However, there are other, much more viable methods of thwarting thieves, most of which are only now heaving themselves upward and making awkward, Bambi-esque strides into the limelight. Thus far, however, only one such anti-piracy tool has proven itself stupidly lucrative: the subscription fee.

During this week's Activision Analyst Day event, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith mused about a possible Guitar Hero subscription service -- part of the publisher's plan to "monetize" the series. In addition, he noted that Call of Duty could fall under a similar, dollar-shaped banner.

Taken on its own, I see no problem with this pseudo-announcement. In both cases, a subscription service would have us lazing in a warm tub of new content with minimal hassle, and, as WoW has kindly pointed out, PC piracy of those games would slope off drastically.

But try ka-ching-ing a few more subscriptions onto your bank account's emaciated form and suddenly, this idea doesn't seem quite so dandy.

Continue reading to find out why subscription fees -- in their current form -- just can't muster the strength to heft the gaming industry above piracy's grasping mitts, as well as how they might be altered to succeed. 

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gaming, Software, news, world of warcraft, guitar hero, activision, call of duty

Posted 09/15/08 at 06:27:46 PM by Nathan Grayson

World of Warcraft is pretty popular. So much so, in fact, that Blizzard could probably slap its painfully recognizable logo on an empty box and still have The Sims spewing furious, unintelligible curses over their relinquished seat at the top of the sales charts. But Blizzard would never do that to you. Instead, the mighty blue giant is cramming Warcraft-branded boxes with Wrath -- an ethereal substance that, admittedly, is still a fairly hard sell.

Don't worry, though; for those of you who feel deserving of an actual reward for you unbridled -- and somewhat perplexing -- devotion, Blizzard is also releasing a Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition. Within its confines, you'll find the following:

• The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from   the game.
• An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director’s commentary, and more.
• The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
•  A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
•  Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion™ starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector’s Edition.

This "expansion," as Blizzard is calling it, hits shelves on November 13. Frankly, though, we just can't understand the appeal. Oh well.

Do you plan on grabbing it?

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gaming, Software, news, world of warcraft, blizzard

Posted 07/15/08 at 02:31:49 PM by Chris Moody

Blizzard has won a summary judgment against the World of Warcraft bot maker MDY (the folks that brought you WowGlider, now MMOGlider) based on copyright grounds.  The judge also decided that liability for contributory copyright infringement and tortious interference is off the table and won’t go to the jury at trial.  This is a victory for Blizzard and a setback for MDY, which brought the action.

Botting has been common in MMO games from almost the beginning and developers have tried varying amounts of pressure to stop the practice. It causes headaches to developers trying to manage an ‘economy’ within their games and discourages players who want to play within the game's frame work and rules. Players have used it as a method to get ahead in MMOs and even turned it into real money by selling virtual items and characters made in this fashion for real money.

This is starting to sound bad for MDY. Who do you think is in the right? MDY, or Blizzard? The final ruling could have an effect felt across many MMOs.

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news, world of warcraft, blizzard, wow, law, Bot, MDY, MMOGlider

Posted 07/08/08 at 01:51:18 PM by Paul Lilly

Come September 30th, neglected significant others will have another item to add to their geek gift list for that special WoW-obsessed someone in their life: A talking plus Murloc. The doll will be sold through Play.com for £25, or roughly 31.5 Euros (almost $50) after shipping for U.S. gamers, and you can already put in your pre-order. Exactly what the amphibious, fish-like humanoid bipedal will spurt out isn't yet known, nor will it ever be known as he gurgles out phrases in Nerglish.

If you really want to go for the double-whammy this holiday shopping season, compliment the gift wrapped Murloc by stuffing a Blizzard Authenticator Dongle into his stocking. Hey, it's better than the alternative.

Update (8/20/08)

Credit goes to gaming enthusiast Bamatick for "inventing" the plush Murloc, who has released his design to the public free of charge.The legality of selling plush Murlocs remains very much in question, a point which Bamatick acknowledges and warns against doing:

"I would love to spend 16 hours hand-sewing each plush murloc for the 100,000 or so of you who expressed a desire to have such, the cost would be prohibitive. Especially considering that I can't sell them, even at no profit. So, I have decided to go the GNU/Linux route and offer my pattern up for open 'source.'[...]I wanted to use this project as a positive for the gaming community."

You can grab the open source pattern here.

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games, gaming, world of warcraft, wow, consumer electronics, plush, murloc, elmo, toys

Posted 07/02/08 at 05:59:42 PM by Paul Lilly

With over a trillion-quantillion subscribers, World of Warcraft players are finding themselves increasingly popular targets for hackers, and nothing stings worse than logging in to Azeroth only to find your character standing in nothing but his scivvies and all his belongs wiped out. All that time spent acquiring digital doodads and neglecting your family, friends, pets, hygiene, job, and other real-life obligations down the drain.

Such scenarios are becoming far too common, and Blizzards offering WoW residents another way to beat back the bad guys, and it won't cost you any mana. Instead, for $6.50 (that's USD, a form of paper and coin currency used in non-virtual landscapes) you can protect your account with Blizzard's Authenticator dongle. Once linked to your account, the dongle generates a one-time six-digit passcode at the press of button to supplement your regular account password. And because the dongle stays separate from your PC, it's impervious to keyloggers and other similar malware.

Anyone plan on picking one of these up?

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games, Software, Security, world of warcraft, blizzard, wow, hardware, Dongle, Authenticator