Why bother sleeping or eating when that next piece of loot for your World Of Warcraft character is only one more hour away? I’m assuming that’s the mentality behind the 15-year-old kid who collapsed and suffered convulsions brought on by an epileptic fit. He was enjoying the latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, with some friends. After 24 hours of grinding and downtime, the kid finally broke.
If you just so happen to play World Of Warcraft all day and night, then you obviously have the game installed on your computer. Did you know that you have access to the Wrath Of The Lich King game manual before the game has been released? Well, you do.
Blizzard either underestimates the nosiness of its players or they just don’t care that you can gain access to the manual by simply going to your World Of Warcraft game folder. In the “\Data\enUS\Documentation” folder you’ll find a file called “Manual_WLK.pdf”. I think “WLK” stands for Wrath Of The Lich King, but I have no confirmation, it’s just guess; a shot in the dark.
Boing Boing Gadgets has an interesting write-up on how Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is being used as a tool for practicing terrorism on our home turf. In this case, a particular raid is modified to reflect an attack on the White House.
[T]wo World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the “White Keep” inside the “Stonetalon Mountains.” The major objective is to set off a “Dragon Fire spell” inside, and make off with “110 Gold and 234 Silver” in treasure. “No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast,” one player, “war_monger,” crows.
Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “Dragon Fire” is an unconventional weapon. And “110 Gold and 234 Silver” tells the plotters how to align the game’s map with one of Washington, D.C.
Seems kind of silly until you realize that it’s probably true and actually could be used to help promote terrorism. Hit the link for the full skinny on the terror plot the Pentagon uncovered.
Many of you World Of Warcraft addicts have been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. It’s the moment where logging on to play your character doesn’t leave you with a fruitless goal of doing nothing more than obtaining gear because now, once again, the level cap will be raised. That means more grinding which will then lead to more talent points and those points will lead to more kills in PvP.
Wrath of the Lich King has been given an official release date of November 13th. So you better make sure your experience bar is fully rested. You wouldn’t want to waste all that time in the new zones for nothing, now would you? Hit the jump for details on the collectors edition :
Last month, we spoke about the World of Warcraft bot program Glider and how Blizzard is taking legal action against the developers. Now it’s seeking an injunction against making the program open source. Sound odd? It might, but it’s a smart move.
You see, Blizzard has to protect both copyrights and intellectual property. Glider infringes upon both and the creators of the bot, frightened from a huge lawsuit, could easily release the code so that their special project will live on forever. Blizzard knows this and isn’t having any of that crap and thus, they’re asking the courts to prevent Glider from going open source. Some are up in arms over the fact that Blizzard might gain control and/or ownership of someone else’s code. I say you get what you get for messing with a multi-billion dollar cash cow.
The video game industry comes up with a lot of crap. But now and then, there comes a game which everyone holds their breathe for, anticipating its release like a child on his birthday waiting for gifts. Then the inevitable shoot down, when you realize all you’ve gotten for a whole year of being a spoiled brat is a lousy sweater. That is the feeling these would-be games give us. We’ve limited the list down to five secure choices that poked at our consciousness and caused our anxiety to run a muck. Hit the jump to dive in:
Sometime in March, Blizzard filed a class action lawsuit against Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting and looting. Well, Blizzard “pwned” the shit out of the software bot’s creator, claiming it infringes the company’s copyright and potentially damages the game.
Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard’s copyright because his software makes no copy of the WoW game client software. However, Blizzard has said the tool infringes copyright because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software. Well, the judge sided with Blizzard, claiming that copying the game into RAM is an unauthorized copy. Epic fail.
Can’t wait to play the upcoming expansion Wrath Of The Lich King for World Of Warcraft? Blizzard understands and has offered a chance win an invitation to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta on their website. Unlike the Burning Crusade beta invite process, Blizzard wants to limit their invitations. Only players who have expressed active interest in participating and actually testing the game as opposed to other beta testers who neglect to report bugs.
When the time comes, the beta will be open for many. But until then, this is your one and only chance at playing the expansion to get the one-up on all of your buddies who desperately want in on the beta as well.
Oh noes! Some key logger has taken over my World Of Warcraft account! All my gold is missing, all my gear was probably destroyed all because I left my password as “password.” Well, it won’t happen again ’cause Blizzard’s got this Blizzard Authenticator they’re selling for just $6.50. It’ll keep them hackers out…unless said hacker happens to be ‘Zero Cool’.
Each time you log in using the Blizzard Authenticator, you are provided with a randomly generated, one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. It’ll change each time you log in and is displayed on this nifty key chain accessory. So, I’m back to playing World Of Warcraft, hacker-free. Who would’ve thought farming Kil’jaedan solo without any gear would be so much fun?
In case you fucking missed it, Blizzard spun the gaming world on its ass this weekend by announcing the long-awaited Diablo III. Along with assorted details here and there, a magnificent 20-minute gameplay video was released, showcasing graphics, environment, new classes and more. You can head on over to Blizzard.com for the real deal but I recommend hitting up ShackNews as they have the best selection of videos and most of the news compressed for ya!
