Community News - 2:26 PM PDT | Posted By: Lady Beth
BBCreports that Microsoft has released an update for the current flaws which has affected many WoW players by making them vulnerable to hackers.
Windows users are being urged to download the latest security patches from Microsoft to protect themselves.
In its monthly security update Microsoft released five patches, four of which are for flaws the software firm rates as "critical".
Flaws given this rating are so serious that they could be used to hijack a Windows PC without a user's knowledge.
The update includes a new version of a patch released in early April that had been causing problems for some users.
Update event
The second Tuesday of every month is the day Microsoft chooses to issue security updates for its software.
The five updates issued in April are for users of Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003 and Microsoft Content Management Server.
The four critical patches are for flaws that Microsoft says could lead to "remote code execution" which means that hackers could exploit them to take over a PC, steal information on it or put it to their own uses.
Also in the security bundle is a fix for a patch that Microsoft released in early April to close a flaw in the way that Windows handles animated cursors.
It released the patch early because many criminal hacking groups were using the flaw to set up booby-trapped websites that could hijack a PC.
Among those targeted in this way were World of Warcraft players as a single account for the hugely popular game can prove very lucrative.
However, Microsoft was forced to issue a fix for the cursor patch as some users found it conflicted with other programs installed on their PC.
Users of programs such as ElsterFormular, TUGZip, CD-Tag, and Realtek HD Audio Control Panel found that installing the patch stopped these utilities working.
Stratics Network Announcement - 5:08 AM PDT | Posted By: the traveler
Stratics and the Star Wars Galaxies developers invite you to attend the next House of Commons chat on Thursday, April 19, 2007. The chat will be held at 5pm Pacific / 7pm Central in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
The focus for this chat will be the highly anticipated Chapter 6!
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or choose a server listed below that is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through the Stratics Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
Please join us on Monday, April 9, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of Lord of the Rings Online at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #middle-earth before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Community News - 12:29 PM PDT | Posted By: Lady Beth
WoWhead is currently holding a logo contest where the grand prize is a Burning Crusade Collectors box and honorable mentions will receive Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy. Head on over to WoWhead to find out more information!
Community News - 7:27 AM PDT | Posted By: Lady Beth
I was recently browsing the WoW EU forums and I came across a post which players talked about their most funnies conversations in WoW. Here are a few I thought were good.
HI can i plz have 10s?" "Me no spaek encglish" Norsk? "Me no speak enclisgh" "Where are you from?" "Me no speak enclisgh"
me: Okay, (priest name) dont cast any dps spells just concentrate on healing us for this dude. priest (lvl 40): Um mate, i can't i'm a DPS priest, i dint buy any healing spells after lvl 10. me: ! party leader: (kicks priest)
Rerolled a gnome warlock a few hours ago. Me: *Accepting the Imp-quest, running down to do the other quests* XX: *Gnome warlock killing trolls* [XX] whispers: You have the Imp-quest? Me: Yeah [XX] whispers: Wanna team? Me: Sure. XX and me continues kiling the trolls for 10 min without anything dropping. Me: Is this really the mobs we're supposed to kill? [XX] whispers: I don't know. Me: -.-
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
* stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
* irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
* stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #middle-earth before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Community News - 4:44 PM PST | Posted By: Lady Beth
Want to show off your character's stats on any website you post on? I recently ran across this website that does just that. Thrissa's Signature Generator pulls your stats off of Blizzard's Armory and sticks it in a handy dandy signature for you. You can see my powerful Druid below. /flex
I'm sure this site will be a HUGE hit with everyone!
Community News - 6:09 AM PST | Posted By: Lady Beth
The WoW Insider has a pretty interesting article on how hackers have already hacked the AppleTV to run WoW. Honestly I didn't think it was possible, but that proves anything is possibly these days. :)
Reader Randomdruid sent along this tip that might interest you if you've picked up Apple's new AppleTV set-top box (I'm too busy working on Sha'tar rep to watch TV, but our good friends at Engadget and TUAW have been doing almost nothing but since the thing came out). Apparently, hackers have already gotten WoW up and running on it.
It's not too big a deal, since I'm pretty sure the box is running a specialized version of OS X anyway, and of course WoW runs on that. The guys at Tutorial Ninja have worked up detailed instructions on how to get any number of applications working on the AppleTV (including Firefox and Centerstage, the open source Mac media center). Scroll down to the middle of the page there, and on the list of "confirmed working apps," you'll find World of Warcraft.
But there is one catch: it looks like pretty much everything has to be installed onto the hard drive by plugging it into another computer. So not only will you have to crack open your pretty new AppleTV, but odds are that you'll have to somehow run WoW from a text interface. And I don't know how you'd actually play it even if it is running-- one of TN's goals is to "get USB working so people can play WoW comfortably." So it's not as easy as throwing the WoW disc in and jumping into Azeroth.
Of course, if you're someone with the time and talent to do all this, you're probably not playing WoW anyway. But if you've got an AppleTV and are already cracking it open to put all the other cool stuff on it, it's good to know that you have the option to get WoW running on your TV screen. Now all we have to figure out is how to get WoW on the iPhone...
Community News - 2:22 PM PST | Posted By: Lady Beth
If you purchase the London Times this Saturday you'll receive a free trial of WoW as well as an eight page guide. One of their writers, Caitlin Moran, recently tried out WoW and ended up staying up until 2am playing. Here is a snippet from the article she wrote regarding her experience.
Imagine my surprise, then, on being able to write the following sentence: on the first day I had World of Warcraft , I stayed up and played it until 2am. I got into bed at 10pm, switched on the electric blanket and opened my laptop, with the simple objective of “getting my bearings” for 20 minutes. Three hours later I was trying to retrieve the stolen journals of Grelin Whitebeard from a cave full of Rockjaw Troggs, while running a very lucrative trade in killing and skinning boars on the side. Then I accidentally got on the Deeprun Tram to Stormwind City, and had to bale out when I realised that I was far too poor to be in a city where “Heavy Mithril Pants” are 27 pieces of silver. 2am! I was so engrossed that I forgot to take my contact lenses out, and fell asleep with them glued to my eyes.
US, March 23, 2007 - Warcraft: Ghostlands - The Final Volume of The Sunwell Trilogy 192 B&W pages Written by: Richard A. Knaak Art by: Jae-Hwan Kim Release Date: March 13, 2007 Price: $9.99
The mighty Sunwell, source of the High Elves' magical might, had been thought lost...until now! In the ruins of the High Elf citadel, a young blue dragon and his companions must fight to save one of their own from certain death, though, in the Ghostlands, the dead refuse to rest easy!
Jae-Hwan Kim, artist of the best-selling King of Hell series and the upcoming War Angels, and Richard A. Knaak, the New York Times best-selling author, bring you back to the world of Warcraft for the gripping conclusion to The Sunwell Trilogy!
Head on over to IGN Australia to preview the cover and 15 pages of the new manga!
Please join us on Wednesday, March 28, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of Planetside at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #planetside before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Cnet has in a recent article put some focus on the players who are innocently caught in the massive banning rounds we all have been witness to.
But is he so innocent or does Blizzard need to take their bannings methods under review so that innocent players are not caught in their web.
To hear Zak tell it, the e-mail he received earlier this month was a total shock--it summarily informed him that he'd been banned from World of Warcraft.
"This is a notification regarding your World of Warcraft account," the e-mail began. "Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation." Zak, a 14-year-old WoW player from Georgia, asked that his last name not be used.
According to several players, Zak isn't the only WoW participant who recently has received a ban with what they believed to be little or no justification. Critics claim WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment has been snaring innocent players in a dragnet for banned activities like account sharing and gold farming--a system in which players either directly or indirectly acquire large amounts of in-game currency or goods through repetitious actions, often achieved by operating automatic "bots" or macros that kill monsters or discover treasure.
Looking on youtube you find a lot of funny movies, but also some that just take the cuteness award. Here a cat seems to think that the flying mount is dinner so nothing much else to say then click and watch the movie :)
Stratics Network Announcement - 9:23 AM PST | Posted By: the traveler
Please join us tonight, Wednesday, March 21, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Community News - 1:26 PM PST | Posted By: Lady Beth
Recently a University displayed WoW in their college bookstore window, and a blogger caught it! Perhaps this is how WoW became the number one seller, by luring in all the college students!
I found this article at MMORPG.com. I thought it was interesting and thought you all might enjoy it. Because after all, who doesn't love a good grind?
It's hard to remember the last time you read a forum for a new or existing MMO and didn't encounter endless rants, comments, and flame wars over that indelible aspect of the genre known simply as 'Teh Grind'. It's right up there with PvP. 'Epic loot' and "Is Guild Wars an MMO?" as one of the most debated points among fans and critics alike. Instead of taking the time and effort to dissect some of the more complex issues in games today, I thought I'd put the spotlight on one of my favorite whipping boys.
In a world full of instant gratification, it seems almost insane that millions upon millions of gamers would purposefully take on the second jobs that most MMOs have become. What makes the grind one of the most common yet most hated concepts in online games today? Will next gen MMO's continue to use this tried and true method or bend to the perceived pressure for 'something else'?
K's Pick: WoW Music Video
Short but sweet...
