"Have you been considering free-to-play for World of Warcraft, and if you did, what would the Blizzard way of free-to-play look like?

PS: I don’t envision us changing the business model for World of Warcraft. It’s been working really well in each of the markets.

The game has been designed in such a way to where we determined the business model to wrap that around what the game experience was. Given that we’re not looking to significantly modify the overall gameplay experience, which is I..."

"An Australian man was arrested recently after he convinced a 15-year-old girl he met while playing World of WarCraft to run away from home to be with him. He even paid for the trip. How sweet.

The 31-year-old Anthony Taylor formed a relationship with the less-than-half-his-age girl, which eventually led to sexual messages and phone calls. The girl’s father found out about the relationship and threatened to kill Anthony, so Anthony did what any self-respecting pedophile would do — he sent ..."

"It took just 10 days for video game maker Funcom Inc. to sell 400,000 copies of its newest title, Age of Conan, last month, making it one of the year's most successful debuts.

But for now, you can't play it on popular living-room consoles like Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or Nintendo Wii. Age of Conan is available only on desktop computers that use Microsoft's Windows operating system. PC gamers say its success helps debunk a popular belief: That console games have crushed t..."

"deathknight.info has posted screens from the alpha test for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, revealing the first info on a potential new achievement system for the massively successful MMO.

The posted screens reveal that typing /achievements into the game's console opens up an achievements menu, complete with early achievements which have point values attached to them.

First impressions point towards a system similar to Deeds in Lord of the Rings Online, and the Tome of Knowle..."

"A psychiatrist specialising in treating those who worry about spending too time playing videogames has said pornography is more accepted than World of Warcraft.

"People feel a lot of shame around computer games," Dr. Jerald Block told The Boston Globe. "Whereas, it's socially acceptable to have a porn problem.

"As a society we understand that porn is something people do, and you can see a psychiatrist and get treated for it."

"Dan Loton, a Psychology graduate from Victoria University, conducted an honours research project to find out if video game addiction was related to social skills and self-esteem.

"From a clinical point of view, an addiction is a mental illness with very serious consequences," he said.

"In this context, we need to ask whether gaming is responsible for causing people’s lives to fall apart in the same way we see with gambling, alcohol or drug addiction."

Mr Loton's study found that o..."

"Shawn Fanning, best known as the founder of pioneering file-sharing service Napster, has finally earned some money.

Electronic Arts said tonight it had acquired his latest company, ThreeSF, and its video-game service Rupture. A person familiar with the deal said EA had paid roughly $30 million.

Shawn Fanning, best known as the founder of pioneering file-sharing service Napster, has finally earned some money.

Electronic Arts said tonight it had acquired his latest company, ThreeSF, an..."

"Police say Jones drove to Boise from Birmingham, Alabama, and picked the teen around 7 a.m. on May 28th.

The pair was found at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time today and are in the custody of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Washington state.

Authorities say Julian appears to be in good physical condition.

Boise Police detectives have contacted the teen's family who are relieved to know she's been found and is unharmed."

""That's actually something we talk about every expansion," Brack admitted when asked about top-end visuals. "I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."

"A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever," the producer said, adding a note of caution. "And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, 'meh, that's not really ..."

""

"The videogame industry has been one of the hardest hit, with over ten million World of Warcraft addicts alone. That's ten million people chasing the dragon, in the hopes they can kill it and score some epic loot. To peer inside the mind of an addict is to peer into the void, where all the concerns that you and I take for granted – having shelter, food, clothes, and a steady supply of money from our whores – no longer matters. All that matters is the drug. All that matters is the next fix.

..."

"Whatever else negative you can say about Uwe Boll, one thing you can’t criticize him on is his strong love for video games. I mean, there may be over 200,000 signatures on an online petition asking that he stop making movies, but he clearly loves the gamer market, and at least goes into each project hoping to make good films for that fanboy community.

Right? Right?!?

the folks over at Blizzard wonder the same thing, since they practically laughed Boll out of their offices when he approa..."

"We rarely do contests, but this seemed like a good time, and we knew the right people. Between Blizzard and Upper Deck, they have unloaded a truly revolting amount of merchandise on us, and we'll be passing this largesse over to the readership in a frictionless manner: three piles of stuff so gigantic that you will quite literally never need to purchase another card. You will, of course, because you won't be able to help it. Even so, you won't need to: four boxes of boosters, tournament playm..."

"The primary race between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is so competitive, it has even barged into the online universe of the World of Warcraft game. Millions of players are supposed to be fighting dragons, raiding enemies and performing magical quests — not discussing superdelegates.

And yet over the past few weeks, WoW has been "teeming" with people gabbing about the election, says Sean Goldman, 36, a player from Van Nuys, Calif."

"Yes, there is another study into the effects that video games have on people. Oddly enough, this one finds that gaming makes you less aggressive; instead more relaxed after you have finished playing.

The study was conducted by Jane Barnett of Middlesex University in the UK. She and her colleagues recruited 292 male and female World of Warcraft players, ages ranging from 12 to 83."

"For our part, this all seems like a bit of a stretch on the part of the article's author. While in-game terrorist tactics with biological weapons do reflect their real life counter-parts in many ways (e.g. hitting big population centers, focusing on travel hubs to maximize spread, etc.), we're not sure what sort of insights this sort of comparison could glean for people who are already experts on the topic. Moreover, when the most prominent group of pan-MMO cyber-terrorists are motivated by "..."

"Frequent use of stolen credit cards to pay for World of Warcraft subscription has prompted UK bank Halifax to block payments to the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment.

In a statement, the bank said its decision to block payments was not a reflection of the integrity of Blizzard or its billing systems.

"We have seen a significant number of fraudulent transactions through Blizzard's gaming sites. We have, therefore, blocked the majority of Visa/Mastercard transactions we receive fro..."

"As part of the Love is in the Air event in World of Warcraft, Weighted Companion Cubes from Portal (if you didn’t already know that I will incinerate you) have been seen in such locations as Stormwind and Undercity."

"Official Statement:
We will be offering free character moves from selected high population realms to lower populated realms, assisting in population dispersal. The ability to move a character on the selected source realms will become available on Thursday, January 31 at 3:00 PM PST, and are scheduled to run until Thursday, February 7 at 3:00 PM PST....
(Full statement at source)"

"Blizzard has announced that the most popular MMORPG in the world, World of Warcraft, has reached yet another landmark - 10 million subscribers. The game now has 2 million subscribers in Europe, over 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia."

"Ok, so we gotta ask – why on earth a character that doesn't kill anything? Doesn't that feel like pulling teeth? I prefer doing stranger stuff, as opposed to grinding high-end instances. Once, my 70 mage was in Southshore, and someone was asking directions to Ghostlands in zone chat. I told him how to go through EPL. Then I clicked on him, and he was something like a level 12 Draenei hunter. I asked him why he wanted to go there, and it turns out he wanted a red cat for a pet -- so I escorted..."

"Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's internet regiment has come to World of Warcraft-- a group of his supporters are planning to form a guild on Whisperwind and do a march from IF to Stormwind (which means they'll probably be Gnomes or Dwarves, which is too bad, because I liked the idea of "Trolls for Ron Paul") on New Year's Day at 8:30pm EST."

"World of Warcraft commercials are highlighted by the likes of William Shatner, Mr. T, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and now Verne Troyer, who are keen to convey their chosen avatar to the viewer while waxing lyrical about their respective strengths."

"The unsuspecting moose immediately obeyed its territorial instincts and focused its attack toward the boy’s frightened sister. Immediately obeying his own gaming instincts, young Hans recalled that taunting was always a good way to successfully draw a monster away from a weak in-game ally in World of Warcraft."

"World of Warcraft is an online fantasy world in which players create characters and take them adventuring. The characters gain experience and become more powerful by doing all sort of quests (kill this, find that, deliver this).

At the higher levels many players band together to go on raids to kill the most powerful enemies and get the best loot.

Zeuzo's creator, who took the rogue from level zero to high level hero, was contacted for the BBC by other players but he would not confirm or..."

""1/10 MMORPG Players Develop Physical Relationships With Others"


And no, I don’t mean other people period, I mean with their actual in-game friends, although that would be hilariously pathetic =D . The thought of a Tauren and Orc getting it on though is absolutely disgusting. Sure, I’ve gotten a lap dance in Goldshire before, but we were both human and she needed the gold for college or a mount or something…

Anyways, Nottingham Trent University has done a research study which reveals ..."

"Sadly however, “World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King” is still yet to be dated for official release. Existing currently as a tantalisingly out-of-reach extension to the sprawling WoW experience.

So, to make those saliva glands work overtime – to the point where your armour is growing rusty from the inside – GamerSquad thought it best to bring you a meaty slice of Lich King temptation, in the form of a developer interview from this year’s Blizzcon, as well as the official Lich Kin..."

"Comedy Central has revealed that those who purchase the tenth series of South Park on DVD will also receive a 14-day trial to the World of Warcraft.

The link between Blizzard's monster of a game and the crappily-brilliant animated show that centres on a group of troublesome pre-pubescent kids is the Emmy-nominated episode, "Make Love, Not Warcraft," which aired last October. It features Cartman and the gang ridding the MMORPG of a hugely powerful Warcraft obsessive intent on ruining the g..."

"A 12-year-old boy from California reportedly ran away from home after his parents took away his World of Warcraft video game. According to Stanton Weekly, the parents of 12-year-old Damien Rollins decided to take away his World of Warcraft video game after they say he became addicted to it. That night, the 12-year-old apparently left his room and vanished.

“It got to the point at which he would play all day and throughout the night. More than 15 hours nonstop sometimes,” said Dorothy. Afte..."

"If rumours are to be believed, World of Warcraft developer Blizzard is to use next month's BlizzCon event as a platform to announce the second expansion to its hugely popular Massively Multiplayer Online game - an opening up of the continent of Northrend.

The speculation is based on a leaked music sheet with scores named Northrend 1, 2, and 3, which are to be played by the Video Games Live orchestra at BlizzCon this year."

"When a human is found unconscious on the shores of Kalimdor, with no memory of who he is or how he arrived there, how will he survive? Enslaved by an Orc Shaman, he must fight for survival against members of both the Alliance and the Horde. Will he strike the uneasy balance with the other races he'll need to find the secrets of his past?

Now the best part of this new info is that you can already subscribe to get your paws on this new World of Warcraft Comic Book series by Wildstorm / DC C..."

"While many game developers don't throw a lot of love in the direction of Mac users, Blizzard isn't one of them. In fact, they declare their love for Apple users in many ways. The release their games on CDs that'll run both the Mac and PC version of the game (since Diablo II: Lord of Destruction), have Mac-specific patch notes and bug fixes, and built-in iTunes support. Now, in the upcoming patch for World of Warcraft, 2.2.0, they've added in-game video-capturing utility for Macs."

"AN AUSTRALIAN woman has been arrested in the US for trying to lure her young internet boyfriend to Australia.

It is believed Tamara Broome, 31, might have been set up by the boy's parents.

Ms Broome told her housemate they paid for her to travel to the US this week so "they could sort it all out".

Instead, Ms Broome was met by three detectives as she tried to board a train near the teenager's home town in North Carolina.

She was charged with attempting to abduct a child after a..."

"An Australian woman who forged a relationship with a younger World of Warcraft player has been arrested in the US as she attempted to meet with the chap and his family.

31-year-old Tamara Broome had met the 17-year-old in Azeroth when he was a year younger, and News.com.au - who we're nicking all this off, obviously - claimed that he had previously attempted to fly over there, and that they aimed to get married."

"Last week, we reported on players now being able to show their stuff from the WoW Armory on a social networking website. Now, Facebook has an updated World of Warcraft Import tool from GuildCafe that allows players to search for people in the same realm."

Are you thinking about going to Blizzcon this year? Well, maybe this well help seal the deal. Blizzard will be giving away beta keys to attendees of Blizzcon, this year. The game in which the beta keys are for is unknown at this point in time. However, one is to assume that it might be for the recently announced Starcraft II.

Along with the beta key you will receive a redeemable code to obtain a Murloc suit for one of your characters in World of Warcraft. Can anyone say Murloc Raid?

"Long ago on Draenor, the Temple of Karabor was the center of draenei worship. But the devout priests who prayed there are long dead, slaughtered by marauding, demonically corrupted orcs. In the massacre's aftermath the warlocks of the Shadow Council seized the structure and bestowed upon it a new name: the Black Temple.

The most difficult new challenge that awaits players in Patch 2.1 will be the hunt for Illidan in his own dark citadel – a quest to bring the reign of the evil overlord to ..."

"In our continued efforts to combat cheating in World of Warcraft, more than 114,000 accounts have been closed across Europe in the month of April for the use of “bot” programs. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, specifically, using unauthorised third party programs to automate game-play. Such behaviour not only negatively impacts the game’s economy, it diminishes the achievements of those who play legitimately.

It is our goal..."

Blizzards hit MMORPG, World of Warcraft and Visa have teamed up to bring to you 13, yes 13 different WoW styled credit cards for your spending needs.

The offer an introductory APR rate of 0% and then 9.99% after that. Also, with your first purchase on your new World of Warcraft Visa you will get a free month of game time. So, signup for a credit card, buy a bag of chips with your visa, get a free month of WoW. Cancel said credit card and not only do you have a nice looking WoW credit card ...

"Electronics and computer video game chat can cause trouble. Please watch what you say to people online. PC games are just that, games.

Mexico City, Mexico-(MH)-Mexican World of Warcraft player Bronco Carson reported to local police on Saturday that 3 men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and smashed his computer. It was supposedly in retaliation for Carson stalking and repeatedly killing one of the attackers wife’s character during computer video game play.

Carson admitte..."

"The public test realms are live! Players can now try out some of the changes and additions coming in World of Warcraft's next patch, Patch 2.1.0, which features the Black Temple!"

"The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The Black Temple

The Temple of Karabor was the center of draenei worship until its
priests were slaughtered by demonically corrupted orcs. In the
massacre's aftermath the warlocks of the Shadow Council seized the
structure and gave it a new name: the Black Temple.

When the Alliance invaded Draenor after the Second War, the orc shaman
Ner'zhul hastily opened several ..."