"Speculation of Alliance Race in World of Warcraft" by James R. Cook "Eldorian"
Several months have passed since Blizzard announced the arrival of their first expansion for World of Warcraft, along with that announcement was a new horde race called the Blood Elves and the promise of a new Alliance race to be announced......

"PvP Guild Interviews (Archimonde-PvP)" by Arkons
With the chaotic environment that will inevitably follow the first 24 hours of retail, many of the most prominent PvP guilds have already declared what server they will be playing on in order to bring anyone who wishes to compete with the big dogs, straight to them.

"World of Warcraft Midnight Madness!" by Zedin
Having the lucky break of living in southern CA, I decided to attend Blizzard's midnight release and dev signing. I arrived at Fry's Electronics around 8pm thinking I was still fairly early, only to notice that the parking lot was already full. Walking to the store front I noticed that the line was already well underway. I started to search for the end of the line, beginning at the front doors. It curved around the front corner and ran along the side of the building. It went back even more until it turned around and started along the backside of the building. By this time I am wondering how many copies Blizzard brought to this little event..

"A Day in the Life of a Pk'er" by Antarius
I can't play World of Warcraft yet (Well, anymore if you count the stress test). This makes me sad. Instead I've been playing City of Heroes. Now, City of Heroes may not be the best game ever, it's kind of repetative, but then again, so is every MMORPG, and I'll even include WoW in with that statement. But anyways, for the Halloween festivities there is an event going on where you get to battle against pumpkin monsters, zombies, witches, vampires, etc. I know Everquest did some similiar events throughout the years, undead invasions and whatnot. Usually these things are pretty fun. In Everquest, there are usually some named type creatures that spawned fairly rarely and there was alot of competition for those mobs. So too there is a boss mob for the Halloween event in City of Heroes, a 30 foot tall Pumpkin King monster. He's really cool; kill him and you get a badge. In fact, the event was really well done. This guy spawns all over the place and everyone that wants to kill him has a chance to. For the most part it works flawlessly.

"Localized Servers " by Lord Anders
6th of October, Blizzard announced they would enforce a split localized server policy. Which means you will need a local address and a local credit card, in order to play the game on your local server. Effectively, this means European players in American guilds will have to play on European servers, and will not be allowed to continue playing with their guildmates; with their friends.

"Ten Days in Azeroth" by IanAsh
Having read some of the submissions for beta impressions over the last week, I felt compelled to write one of my own. I owe a lot to my significant other for this review; she was nice enough to let me have a turn now and then to play! I wanted to come up with a good title, a good way to capsulate my review in a few words. I wanted to avoid "Ten Ways WoW Rocks My Former MMORPG", although very tempting as it was, and passed on "WoW Will Be Better Than [insert upcoming MMO name here]". I hesitated on the otherwise aptly chosen "Ten Ways Blizzard Will Cash the Checks" title, and decided to sum up my beta impressions in ten bullets; one for each day of the stress test.

"The Stress Test pt. 2 (Day 3) " by Antarius
So, I finally got my hands on the game that I drooled over for months. What do I think about it? Well, I already knew what I was going to be playing, so I went through character creation rather quickly, just touching briefly on looking at the other races and the customization options. The game is definatly not City of Heroes with it's limitless supply of character designs. That being said, the game also is not Lineage 2 (with it's 15 or so available options. It gave me enough options that I was satisfied.)

"Calm Before the Storm (Stress test part 1)" by Antarius
So, Stress test is finally coming tomorrow. I even went out and spent 260 bucks upgrading my computer today (Processor+Mobo and RAM) Sure, my previous computer fit the minimum requirements. BUT THIS IS WORLD OF WARCRAFT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.

"What's Worse Than Waiting?" by Shadowlance
Like a Christmas Day that's years behind schedule, the fans of WoW chew their fingernails to nubs and try to think of things to pass the hours until the next fansite exclusive update. Personally, I'm about out of distractions. Before this May I had my degree to worry about, now that I've graduated I really have nothing to keep me occupied. I have a night job at a restaurant, which leaves my days free to browse the internet, write, and play games. The problem is, it's still August.

"The Addictive Qualities of a MMOG" by Antarius
It's been said that video games like Everquest are addictive. I personally believe this to be true. I played Everquest for close to a quarter of my life, over 5 years. I'd like to take a minute and explore just why these types of video games are so addictive in nature and if it's necessarily a bad thing that they are addictive.

"The Merits of a Seperate PvP Server " by Joe Vu
As of this writing, Blizzard is deciding whether or not to provide a separate PvP server. The purpose of this editorial is to discuss the merits of such a choice. Although this decision—to put it mildly and in non-troll terms—gets disapproving nods from most PvP players, ultimately, for the utility of the game and as a business solution, the move is a sound one.

"Hype. Is World of Warcraft living up to it?" by James Crouthamelt
In today’s gaming industry it seems the companies are trying to make games better looking, and more demanding on your system. They have made hardcore gamers increase their machines with every newly published game. It has come down to if you can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars on an upgrade, or even an overhaul of your computer you will not have any good new software to run on it. The best gaming companies are trying to beat each other to the new, more complex engines/graphics, which make their games cost $50.00, plus any upgrades to your computer required to run the game.

"An Introduction to the Ethics of MMORPGs (for Non-philosopher Gamers)" by Jonathan Kastin
MMORPGs do not seem to be like other games. People who play checkers never worry about the morality of double-jumping; chess masters don¹t feel a pang of conscience when they put the opponent¹s king in check. And yet, among players of MMORPGs, there is a constant debate about certain in-game practices (e.g., player killing, kill stealing, training, division of loot, twinking, power levelling, etc), and this debate is, ultimately, about the moral status of these practices.

" A Particular Concern, Part II: Abrasive Gamers" by Shadowlance
Since my last submission, I have cancelled my account to Xbox Live…

Which leaves me free to complete my analysis of the Abrasive Gamer (AG). As a quick synopsis, the AG label is applied to any gamer that devotes time and energy into the act of detracting from another gamer's play experience. This can come in a number of different forms of abuse, harassment, and aggravation. As the video game industry advances, AG's benefit with new ways to harangue their targets. With the implementation of headsets for many game platforms, we now have the pleasure of hearing the 9 year old who can not only type, but talk in leet…sorry…1337 as well.

"WoW and the Future of Online Gaming" by Yon Lew
In 1982 fans of science fiction writer Harlan Ellison who worked at Atari asked him to review the "Empire Strikes Back" video game. Ellison was horrified to discover that no matter how good you got or how well you played the result was always the same: the game rolled on and on until you lost or got so bored you threw the controller away and headed to the kitchen to make a sandwich. In the years since then game designers for single player games have by and large made some attempt to cater to the human desire for resolution by introducing story lines into their games.

"Hybrids vs. Core" by Sylene
When thinking up classes for players to choose, the amount of dramatically different classes is very limited; usually to warrior, nuker, healer. I'll call these the "core" classes. Although some traits are shared -- most spellcasters that don't focus on damage include some sort of buffing skill. However, with that few combinations, the urge to create as many different unique classes usually leads to "hybrid" classes, or ones that share traits from the core classes. For instance, there might be a nuker that also has some healing and buffing skills, or a warrior that can heal. This allows players who might be torn between two classes to have the liberty of playing both in one. There's just a common problem associated with this: balancing.

"Combat Speed " by Vaevictis
The speed of combat in an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) is a major factor in how the game plays. If it is timed too slow then the battles get tedious and boring, if timed too fast it quickly becomes overwhelming. The World of Warcraft would do well to look into what is going on in the industry and use that to make their game even more fun. To get an idea of where this issue stands one must first look at its history.

" Alt Escape " by Kap
Games with a character creator will always attract role-players, fantasy fanatics and anyone who enjoys multiplayer settings. They let you decide what you are, your history and even customize your appearance. When you enter the game world you are not just an avatar -- you are unique and in control of your destiny. You travel the world and make friends and enemies and create your own story by not only making yourself familiar with the area, but by letting others become familiar with you. If you choose to remove your character from the virtual world to play an alternate character you will experience a new aspect of RPGs -- the side where you have no friends.

" Money Farming " by Lord Anders
A problem which has yet been lying in the dark is about to surface. Until now it's been severely limited and not had any impact on gameplay and overall game economy in the past MMORPG's, but during the Lineage 2 open beta this has come to be more than just a minor nuisance. It's getting to be a big problem which must be controlled before it starts running rampant in other MMORPG's like WoW. What am I talking about? A phenomenon that has generally been known as “Adena Farming”

" A Particular Concern, Part I " by Shadowlance
Over the last month or so, I took a small sabbatical from Stratics in order to concentrate on my final projects and exams in order to graduate. My intentions to do nothing but study started out well enough, however, like any seasoned gamer I soon gave into the multitude of different distractions that devoured a good portion of my time. I forced myself to stay off the Internet and computer unless school demanded, but I could not completely sever my ties with my beloved Xbox. One of my favorite distractions came from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. The Live aspects of this game are completely absorbing; my roommate is taking advantage of my keyboard time to play as I type this now.

"A short glimpse inside the MMORPG network mechanics" by birt
All these multiplayer games seem to work through some kind of wizardry, don't they? Let's try to peek inside and see how exactly do they do all that neat stuff that lets you see the other players and interact with them, using our particular case, World of Warcraft. This article is rather technical, intended to dispel the magic of the client/server model used by MMORPG games nowadays. To begin with, for those that just regard the network as an ensemble of cables connected to different computers, I will try to split the communication between the client (your game) and the server (the Blizzard world server where everyone connects) into two parts, only for the scope of this writing.

"Realism in World of Warcraft; Marriage" by mohabii
An example of type A socio-economic realism in gaming is marriage. Not a new concept to the world of mmo's but it has never gone into the depth of realism that marriages really have. In a way, being able to get married IS realistic, however that is only one part of socio-economic realism. Marriages in current mmo's lack almost any type B socio-economic realism

"Trust No One. Fear Everything." by MisterSuperDude
I am tired of the whining that is that is proliferated through almost every single message board for a MMORPG. If one is going to play in the sandbox then one must learn to play with the other children. Nevertheless, the greatest atrocity is committed when the developers actually listen to these socially stunted individuals.

"WoW Stratics in Beta: Day one" by Kheldon
As many of you know, Blizzard is using bit torrent to distribute the beta and like many others I had my doubts. Those worries did not go away when my downloader was showing a skinny little 1 kb/s download speed and the estimated time was showing more than 300 hours. But to my joy only a few minutes later the download sped up to a much more acceptable level for my connection and it became only a couple of hours download for the 2 GB beta client.I won’t delay you with annoying details of the download or installation; there was nothing exciting about it, but instead let’s move right on towards the character creation!

"Pleasing All the Gamers, All the Time: A Realistic Look at Gaming Expectations" by Shadowlance
As we await the release of WoW with bated breath, all the old worries begin to creep into my mind that are inevitable when you take multitudes of different people and put them in close contact with one another. As a former player of Dark Age of Camelot, I shudder when I think of the recurring arguments and problems that occur when someone holds a different point of view than another. The Blizzard staff is noted as employing many dedicated gamers, and I can comfortably guess they have had their share of altercations with immature or ornery gamers. Preventing player animosity, therefore, has become a focus of the WoW staff. I must tip my hat to the development teams who created the instancing format of dungeon crawling; they have eliminated a major cause of player hostility in one clean stroke.

"Waiting for Worlds of Warcraft" by Vaevictis  
Any gamer who has played a Blizzard title can attest to both of these points being true. It is very likely that the Blizzard title they played was delayed at least once and it was also extremely well done. Because of this gamers seem perfectly content to wait forever for beta because they know it will be worth it and that is their expectation.

Realism in World of Warcraft; Marriage" by mohabii
An example of type A socio-economic realism in gaming is marriage. Not a new concept to the world of mmo's but it has never gone into the depth of realism that marriages really have. In a way, being able to get married IS realistic, however that is only one part of socio-economic realism. Marriages in current mmo's lack almost any type B socio-economic realism.

"Exploration" by Zedin  
Initially I sat down to write an editorial about exploration in online gaming. Yet as I pondered why more folks don't actively explore in games I kept finding myself coming back predominantly to the same answer: maximizing. "To increase or make as great as possible" is how www.dictionary.com defines maximize and this word is what guides almost all MMORPG players. They question I ask is "why?" While members of my guild have often joked about 'maximizing exp' or creating the most efficient party, it is unfortunately mindset that today's online gamer.

"A World that Lives" by Sylene  
My reform started when I took one of those blue-moon visits to the official boards. There I read a post by Kat, saying that wanted posters will initiate quests. Although insignificant in itself, it’s what made me realize several other important facts I read about before. Firstly, there is that deal with trade skills and the fact that you mine and gather materials rather than just have some random monster drop a batch of (presumably dirty and squished) berries. The significance in this is that the world is a world, complete with natural resources and the ability to collect it. In other words, if a tree has fruit, then, just like any fruit tree in real life, you can pick it off.

"Trolls! pt.1 " by b0ksah
We know from the fairytales and the many role-playing books, games and movies. We love to hate them and cheer when the hero cuts one open or when they turn into stone because the sun shines on them.

BUT, this editorial is about something different than the Trolls in fairytales, that we love to hate. No this editorial is about a different breed of trolls, that you can meet online. You probably already met some without knowing. But what kind of troll am I talking about? Well, I’m talking about the most dangerous troll know to man …. THE BOARD TROLL!!! … Yeah that’s right the most creepy and sneaky type of tr0lls ever!

"Trolls! pt. 2" by b0ksah  
b0ksah is sitting at his computer playing Warcraft 3. He can’t help but wonder that he has forgotten something – but what? Hmm, did he forget to water the plants? Nah, they died ages ago. He turns his attention toward Warcraft again, and then proceeds to lose his match… go figure. However, he still has this troubling thought that he has something to do …. Ohh .. yes… Where was I? Oh, yes that's right … the mating pattern of cats … ehm .. no that's not it ..

Oh yes tr0lls … Why people become tr0lls ..

"The Grind" by Vaevictis
In looking forward to any MMO I usually get into the features of each game such as magic or fighting, ie the “cool” factor. With WoW I can already picture my mage torching some insolent fool, or turning some terrifying tauren into a harmless sheep. In Star Wars Galaxies it was running my own Player Association (guilds more or less), in DAOC it was simply trying to level my wizard as high as possible and then kick butt in PvP. Once the game in question is released I have to come to face the fact that while those features are usually interesting they are overshadowed by one thing-- "The Grind" .
 

"Music" by Cha0sGrenade
I doubt if I would win an argument that music is as important to a great MMORPG as balancing PvP for example. I’m sure if we posted a poll on the site here about what was most important, music would rank somewhere towards the bottom. However, if you’ve ever seen a summer blockbuster that made you drool, I guarantee there is a well constructed, emotion stirring score behind all your favorite scenes. Seriously. When Star Wars Episode 1 first started with John Williams score blasting those first few notes, you were giddy (until Jar Jar came out of course). Blizzard has some gems in their music department and if given a chance I think they could help add a touch of style and punch that WoW’s competitors lack.
 

"WoW Faction System – More complex than we think or is Blizzard making a blunder?" by Kheldon
We know that both the Alliance and the Horde are in their own eyes the ‘good guys’, but are basically just rebuilding their societies and just want to be left alone. Fighting between the two will likely occur over territory and what belongs to whom. Both have very very bad experiences with demons and demonic powers, the Orcs and their Horde more so than the Alliance since the green skins have at times been corrupted by them directly. I’d think that it’s perfectly alright to say that they might not like demons or anything related to demonic magic very much, wouldn’t you?
But then…we have Warlocks.