ZAM News (full)

ZAM News (full) http://www.zam.com/ ZAM gaming news rss feed Announcing Allakhazam Featured Blogs [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23147 Have you ever come across a blog that was a great read and you wondered why it didn’t have more followers? How about one you started, that you think the members here would find interesting; or one written by a friend or guild mate perhaps? Well here’s your chance to get it more publicity. We’re looking to highlight blogs that have caught our reader’s attention. Not just any blog will do; there are a few criteria that it should meet after the jump:  <a name="pause" title="pause"></a>1)    It needs to be about World of Warcraft. Your mother’s blog about her flower garden may be interesting, but it isn’t necessarily what we are looking for! 2)    It should have a decent number of articles, be well written, in addition to being actively updated. Older blogs are welcomed along with newer ones. However a submission should have at least 10-15 articles, and be at least a few weeks old; updates at least once a week or so would be nice. Proper spelling and grammar is a plus. 3)    More popular blogs need not apply. The thought isn’t to give more traffic to well-known blogs out there, but instead to highlight some of the more interesting reads that people may not come across otherwise. 4)    Specific is okay, but general is better. Good theory-crafting and class-specific blogs can be interesting, but often only appeal to a small subset of WoW players. That being said, a class-specific blog can still be featured. It’s only natural that a blog by someone who plays a hunter will have articles discussing hunter-specific macros and mechanics; but some general WoW related articles are a definite plus. For example, <a href="http://meriheals.blogspot.com/">here’s a recently started blog</a> by Merinna of Nagrand (US-Oceanic) server. The blogger’s main character is a Restoration Shaman, so the blog has a few articles about shaman healing. There are also articles about the writer’s experiences in the Cataclysm Beta (a Hunter with a Felsteed?) as well as some thoughts about raiding and World of Warcraft in general. Feel free to check it out. So if you have a blog you’d like to see featured send an e-mail to zamfeaturedblogs@gmail.com. Allakhazam staff will review the entries and choose one from among those that meet the criteria. We’ll periodically feature a new blog with a short summary article and a link. This will happen more or less frequently depending on the number of submissions. -<a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/someproteinguy">SomeProteinGuy</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:30:49 -0000 Azshara : New and Goblin Improved! [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23124 Recently <a href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/azshara.html">Blizzard gave us more information</a> on changes in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion; Game designers Craig Amai and Dave Kosak give us some inside views on the overall design and  revamping  of Azshara. It's great to see that no zone is safe. In other interviews we saw that quests and pieces of a zone change, a typhoon or vortex here, new quests sprinkled about, or new story lines.  But here, we see Blizzard isn't afraid to completely wipe the zone and start fresh. They've choosen to keep a few things familiar so it still feels like the old zone, using the same color palette and a few choice landmarks. The familiarity is comforting amidst the massive amount of new content.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a> Changing the zone's level is a huge difference, both for the zone, and the continent. It gives us, the players,  many more options with our leveling experience. Azshara is now 10-20, and being connected to Orgrimmar, competes with Northern Barrens. After Cataclysm launches, everyone that creates a new character, young or veteran players players alike, will have many more choices to make their play experience much more enjoyable. This was fantastic for leveling in Northrend and I'm  realy happy they carried it over. The inclusion of instanced parts of the zone, where we get to feel that each one of us makes a difference. The fact that a goal can be visibly and permanently achieved through our trials and tribulations in questing is very exciting. I foresee many new players, and  80s, coming here to check out the new quests, story line, and the freshly reimagined zone. Also stop in and drop by our forums, to discuss, or read about, any of the great upcoming changes in the World of Warcraft, or see if any of our great posters, that are in the Beta, could shed a few more snippets of info on the zone. -<a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/beanx">Beanx</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:29:47 -0000 BlizzCon 2010 In-Game Items Revealed [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23088 Ok, <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/news/?d=2010-8#251130">Blizzard</a> fans, now we're getting somewhere. If you attend BlizzCon or buy a BlizzCon virtual ticket you will unlock a couple murloc themed prizes to use in World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. World of Warcraft players will unlock Deathy, a debatably cute murloc companion dressed up like the dragon Deathwing. StarCraft II players will unlock a Murloc marine portrait as well as a pair of "deep sea decals" to put on your units, each with a different design from the 3 playable races: terran, protoss and zerg. So what do you think about all this Murloc madness? Go <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/">here</a> to see a picture of Deathy. Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:50:31 -0000 Icecrown Citadel cleared with blue-quality gear. [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23056 For those who may not know Gevlon, creator of the <a href="http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/">Greedy Goblin blog</a>, has taken on the challenge of trying to clear as much WotLK raid content in possible while only wearing blue (rare) armor, with minor exceptions. His guild “Undergeared” of EU-Arathor spent much of the spring and summer clearing content despite the self-imposed handicap. However as the summer has dragged on the group has fizzled somewhat, as many guilds do. They are planning one last attempt to clear some additional content this coming week, but other than that it appears this great experiment is coming to a close. So what is the end result? The guild ended up clearing a large portion of the game’s 10-man content. Barring some additional success in the coming week; the group ended up clearing 8 out of the 12 bosses in Icecrown Citadel, including the first wing, plus Rotface, Festergut, Valithria Dreamwalker and Blood Princes. All of Trial of the Crusader and Naxxramas encounters were cleared, and all but two bosses in Ulduar (Yogg-Saron and Assembly of Iron). In addition they also cleared all of the 5-man heroic content. Interestingly enough the group found the Trial of the Crusader (ToC) raid to be easier than Ulduar wearing the same gear, despite the fact that ToC was released later in the expansion. Whether or not they clear any additional content, the guild went a long way toward showing what a sufficiently skilled group can accomplish; kudos to them. -- <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/someproteinguy">someproteinguy</a> Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:24:44 -0000 WoW: Cataclysm Collector's Edition Unveiled [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23042 <img style="float: right; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 2px;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174569.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="258" />We still don't have a release date for Blizzard's next <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/" target="_blank">World of Warcraft</a> expansion, <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/wiki/Cataclysm_(WoW)" target="_blank">Cataclysm</a>... but we do have details about what's included in the "Collector's Edition" box! In a press release earlier this week, Blizzard announced the limited-release Collector's Edition of Cataclysm, the third and upcoming expansion for WoW. The package will only be available at retail stores with a suggested price of $79.99, according to the press release. The collector's edition includes the following "exclusive bonus items" in addition to the game disc: a 176-page artwork book titled "Art of the Cataclysm," a " Lil' Deathwing" in-game vanity pet, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a Cataclysm soundtrack CD, a Deathwing-themed mouse pad and a set of World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards. The card set includes a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector's Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG. Read the full Cataclysm collector's edition press release after the jump. Be sure to check out ZAM and Wowhead's <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/contest=wow-haiku-contest" target="_blank">Cataclysm Beta Key Contest</a> for your chance to preview the upcoming expansion before it hits store shelves, and visit our <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/" target="_blank">World of Warcraft portal site</a> for more Cataclysm news and information.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a><hr /> <a href="http://common.allakhazam.com/images/0/0/00fe4ce55e389e1676bb4ab73fe0fbf8.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174570.jpg" alt="" /></a> <blockquote> World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition Announced </blockquote> <blockquote> IRVINE, Calif., Aug 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for a limited-release Collector's Edition of World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game,* World of Warcraft. The special Collector's Edition package, which will only be available at retail stores, will include the following exclusive bonus items in addition to the game disc: <ul> <li>Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development. </li> <li>Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil' Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.</li> <li>Behind-the-scenes DVD with over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft(R) retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.</li> <li>Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive bonus tracks.</li> <li>Special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.</li> <li>World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards, including a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector's Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG. </li> </ul> The first two World of Warcraft expansions, The Burning Crusade(R) and Wrath of the Lich King(R), each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races -- worgen and goblins -- will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world. The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate, please visit the official Battle.net website at <a href="http://www.battle.net/">http://www.battle.net</a>. The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows(R) XP/Windows Vista(R)/Windows(R) 7 and Macintosh(R) at a suggested retail price of $79.99. The release date and other details for the game will be announced in the months ahead. For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at <a href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm">http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm</a>. </blockquote><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:39:08 -0000 Private Servers, MMO Piracy and the Future of DRM [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23033 While piracy in MMO gaming isn't as prevalent as in other video game markets, Activision-Blizzard and other publishers remain aggressive in their hunt for operators of rogue, "private servers." Last week <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/" target="_blank">World of Warcraft</a> publisher Blizzard made headlines across the blogosphere after the company was <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/the-88-million-server-private-wow-server-op-loses-big.ars" target="_blank">awarded more than $88 million in damages</a> in federal court; the complaint was <a href="http://www.wow.com/2009/10/29/blizzard-files-lawsuit-against-private-server/" target="_blank">originally filed in October 2009</a>, alleging Alyson Reeves—the defendant and operator of a popular "Scapegaming" private server—broke the company's EULA by hosting the illegal server and selling in-game items for real money via PayPal. The recent lawsuit is one of the most extreme cases of piracy in the MMO industry; Scapegaming hosted 427,393 total users, with 32,000 to 40,000 players online each day, according to the <a href="http://reporter.blogs.com/files/blizzard---order-on-damages1.pdf" target="_blank">court order</a> [via <a href="http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/" target="_blank">THR, Esq.</a>]. But is piracy in MMOs a widespread problem for most of today's publishers? Or is online gaming, by nature, more prohibitive to "digital theft" than traditional video games? Some publishers are taking cues from the cloud-based nature of online gaming, adopting new forms of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management" target="_blank">digital rights management</a> (DRM) for single-player or "offline" games that rely on users' Internet connections to constantly validate their usage rights.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a><img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174528.jpg" alt="" /> From the perspective of non-gamers and MMO rookies, the recent news fiasco might lead some readers to believe that piracy in the MMO market is running rampant, or that private servers like Scapegaming are robbing game publishers blind. While it's true that private MMO servers almost always have a negative impact on the industry (and we at ZAM would urge players to stay away from them for a variety of other reasons, as mentioned below), it's important to recognize the relative significance of this case, as opposed to the rest. This is one of the largest of such private servers to be pursued in court by Blizzard; the defendant earned more than $3 million by collecting PayPal "donations" from users in exchange for leveling boosts and epic gear, according to <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29936/Blizzard_Wins_88M_Judgment_Against_WoW_Private_Server_Owner.php" target="_blank">Gamasutra</a>. Reeves failed to show up in court to defend herself last week and Blizzard was awarded a default judgment of $88 million. That total equals "$3,053,339 in profits from the improper private server, $63,600 in attorneys' fees and a whopping $85,478,600 in statutory damages for willful infringement," according to Eriq Gardner of the <a href="http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/08/world-of-warcraft-89-million-dollar-decision.html" target="_blank">THR, Esq. column</a>. Blizzard later issued the following statement in response to the ruling: <blockquote> "Our ultimate goal is to create the best games in the world, and that means we need to protect our games and safeguard our players’ experiences with them. Server emulators that use Blizzard’s IP facilitate piracy and offer unauthorized, inconsistent gaming experiences that can damage Blizzard’s reputation and goodwill with players. We take these types of threats very seriously and will continue to take every available measure to protect our rights globally." </blockquote> Scapegaming was one of the largest and most popular private WoW servers in 2009 and Reeves was essentially selling in-game content in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment" target="_blank">micro-transaction</a> format, so it's no surprise that her server was at the top of Blizzard's hit list. As Scott Jennings notes in his <a href="http://brokentoys.org/2010/08/16/nuclear-launch-detected-against-wow-private-server/" target="_blank">BrokenToys blog</a>, 420,000 users is huge; the size of most legitimate, "second-tier" MMOs, let alone the player base of a private server. This case is clearly an example of Blizzard setting a legal precedent, similar to its <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9991451-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20" target="_blank">2008 lawsuit against MDY Industries</a>, retailer of WoWGlider (a utility that allowed players to "bot" and take advantage of other game client mechanics). <img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174524.jpg" alt="" /> Legal actions like these aren't just about preserving a publisher's EULA and proprietary server technology, however; it's also about combating piracy under the broad wings of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act" target="_blank">Digital Millennium Copyright Act</a> (DMCA), which video game developers and publishers have been doing for years. Historically though, online gaming and MMOs were targeted much less than traditional PC and console games because of their intrinsic nature; the client requires a constant connection to the server, which also validates a user's game license. But the advent of server emulation, free <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network" target="_blank">virtual private networks</a> (VPNs), network tunneling and other technology has increased the accessibility of private servers in recent years, allowing users unlicensed access to MMOs and other online gaming. It's usually a game of cat-and-mouse with the smaller private servers; DMCA takedown notices are sent to the service provider, the server goes down and another one pops up to take its place. Sometimes private servers grow so big and popular that publishers get the FBI involved, as was the case in NCsoft's 2006 <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news211106ncsoftraid" target="_blank">Lineage II private server takedown</a>. In the MMO realm, most community members regard private servers as shady and often dangerous; a back-alley endeavor that isn't worth the risk of getting caught and banned by the game's publisher, or having one's machine infected with malware and other unscrupulous logging software. Many private server invitations and registrations are a ruse in themselves, designed to trick users into providing login credentials and other personal information. <img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174525.jpg" alt="" /> If you're not familiar with the term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_server" target="_blank">"private server,"</a> it's used—in the context of MMOs, at least—to describe a non-sanctioned server environment that allows users to play online, without accessing the publisher's official servers. Players use them for avoiding monthly subscription fees, gaining access to restricted content, testing purposes and more. Private and emulated servers are also used for other types of games, like first-person shooters and real-time strategy titles (usually for the same reason—to play online for free, using pirated copies of the game). However, the use of private servers and VPNs to play online games for free isn't as easily-accessible as downloading a BitTorrent file, for example. The technology is becoming a bit more user-friendly for traditional PC games, though. Up until the past few years, those who downloaded pirated copies of games like Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect could only play the single-player campaigns; they weren't able to access the official servers to play online with other people, because the server checks to make sure each player is using a valid license. The emergence of easy-to-use VPN services like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi" target="_blank">Hamachi</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wippien" target="_blank">Wippien</a> and <a href="http://www.tunngle.net/en/" target="_blank">Tunngle</a> has changed the norm, allowing easier access to third-party servers with pirated video games.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a>Although the MMO industry might not be losing that much business from private servers (with the exception of some markets, according to <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15524" target="_blank">MMO anti-piracy groups like China's OGAAP</a>), the rest of the gaming industry is scurrying to find new anti-piracy solutions. Last year Ubisoft <a href="http://kotaku.com/5323863/ubisoft-plans-to-have-piracy-solution-in-place-this-year" target="_blank">announced</a> it was working on new anti-piracy techniques, which were later unveiled in Assassin's Creed 2 as the <a href="http://www.tweakguides.com/AC2_1.html" target="_blank">infamous connection-required DRM</a>. Similar to MMO games, Ubisoft's new DRM protection requires a constant Internet connection to access the game, even in single-player mode. The new DRM technology in Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 <a href="http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/7219/gamers-furious-over-ubisofts-drm-assassins-creed-ii-unplayable" target="_blank">outraged thousands of gamers</a> and sparked a PR nightmare for Ubisoft; players couldn't access the game if their Internet connection was down and game saves were lost if their router malfunctioned. Ubisoft's servers even went down at one point, denying game access to customers. Worse still, the pirate "scene" <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1595262/ubisoft-drm-cracked" target="_blank">cracked Ubisoft's DRM within 24 hours</a>, effectively making pirated copies more desirable than legitimate versions. Ubisoft eventually deployed a patch that helped users retain game saves when kicked offline, and it appears that <a href="http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=400102&f=4821071447&m=7471048678&r=7471048678#7471048678" target="_blank">future games will use Valve’s Steamworks API</a> instead of the "always online" solution. <img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174530.jpg" alt="" /> Blizzard's new <a href="http://us.battle.net/en/" target="_blank">Battle.net</a> system also sparked debate last year when it was <a href="http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=18649" target="_blank">announced that StarCraft 2 wouldn't support LAN play</a>, a defining feature of the original game. Although Blizzard's new DRM used in StarCraft 2 isn't as restrictive as Ubisoft's, the server-side authentication required to play the offline, single-player campaign is <a href="http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16958" target="_blank">frustrating to some</a>. "While single-player will be available offline, installation must have an internet connection in order to proceed," <a href="http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/204/starcraft-ii-developers-talk-single-player/1" target="_blank">Incgamers.com</a> explains in a Q&A with the SC2 development team. "You are also required to have or signup for a Battle.net account in order to install the game. All achievements and friends lists etc will be available as soon as you logon, but the actual single player game is available anyway. 'You can [play single player offline], but we don't encourage it.' [lead designer Dustin] Browder said. 'We totally allow it if you want to do it,' but the point is 'you don't get access a lot of the stuff.'" Online gaming piracy is forcing desperate companies to think outside the box; Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens suggests the solution might be in selling "unfinished games," according to an <a href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=255861" target="_blank">interview with CVG</a>. Admitting that traditional DRM isn't doing the trick, Cousens wants publishers to "sell unfinished games" and "to offer the consumer multiple micro-payments to buy elements of the full experience." He explains that even if such games are pirated, the "complete" experience won't be available unless players buy additional elements. Cousens is essentially suggesting the equivalent of distribution and revenue models used in MMOs like <a href="http://www.zam.com/game.html?game=38" target="_blank">Dungeons & Dragons Online</a>, <a href="http://www.zam.com/game.html?game=12" target="_blank">Warhammer Online</a>, <a href="http://www.zam.com/game.html?game=23" target="_blank">Lord of the Rings Online</a> and many other free-to-play titles. As digital distribution continues to grow in popularity, we've already seen the precursor of this idea in the form of downloadable content (which is commonly pirated in addition to the "core" game). <img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/174526.jpg" alt="" /> So the issue comes full-circle, back to server-side authentication and some form of "always connected" DRM, which most gamers loathe. It works for MMOs because the whole point is online gameplay, and the same is usually true of multiplayer-heavy games like StarCraft 2, Left 4 Dead and Modern Warfare 2. But even then—and especially with solo-oriented games, like we've seen in Assassin's Creed 2—players are having a tough time accepting the "always connected" solution that publishers are shoving down our throats. Until the gaming industry can find some kind of compromise—which should become easier as the older generation of "Doom LANers" retires—the best way to vote is with your wallet. Support developers who have enough faith in their products to release a game without any copy protection at all, like the uber-successful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Goo" target="_blank">World of Goo</a>. Snub publishers who incorporate ridiculous protections that require "always connected" restrictions if you don't agree with them. Let the industry know that the best way to curb piracy is to make legitimate game copies more desirable than pirated ones, as obvious as that concept should already be.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:30:00 -0000 Blizzard Announces Blizzcon Contests [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23019 <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/">Blizzcon</a> might still seem very far off, but that doesn't mean that the excitement has to wait.  <a href="http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14332966923&sid=1">Blizzard just announced the start of the Blizzcon contests!</a> There are several categories to choose from: <ul> <li><a href="http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/community/contests/blizzcon10-fanart/index.html">unique fan art contest</a></li> <li><a href="http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/community/contests/blizzcon10-song/index.html">song contest</a></li> <li><a href="http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/community/contests/blizzcon10-movie/index.html">movie contest </a></li> </ul> We have some talented people at <a href="http://www.zam.com/">ZAM.com</a> so put your creative caps on and go win some prizes. Be sure to come here afterwards and share your work with us; we'd all love to see it. Sadly Blizzard does not, at the moment, have a writing contest specifically for Blizzcon, however, if you have a short story you'd like to share with people <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=21&mid=124522844824185623&page=1">we have a story thread</a> in the WoW general forums, and it'd be great to get more people involved. - <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/Xsarus" target="_self">Xsarus</a> Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:32:16 -0000 Reviving Screenshot and Thought for the Day! [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=22980 Put on your rose tinted glasses for a moment and travel back with us to an older, gentler time.  This was a time when men were real men, women were real women, class balance was perfect and Allakhazam proudly sported new screenshots and thoughts every day. While I am afraid we cannot travel back to that time, we can bring back the screenshots and thoughts.  The key to this, of course, is you. Without you, our fantastic and loyal reader, we cannot possibly harness the sheer potential of this project. If you feel inspired by a quest, a spectacular view or if you took a screenshot and thought of the most hilarious caption, you have what we need! There are a couple of categories you can submit pictures under: <ul> <li>You have a cool picture and a story behind it, please submit it. Maybe someone else will submit a follow up picture and story to continue the experience!</li> <li>You found a really unique area, place or item. Send us the screenshot and all the information and we can post it to see who else will recognize it.</li> <li>You have a great screenshot, but think it needs a caption.  We can show it and see what other people think the perfect caption should be.</li> <li>You heard a cool joke in general chat and want to share with the world.</li> <li>You are bored and have a witty thought. We will accept those also!</li> </ul> Images do not have to be a screenshot from WoW. If you want to submit your own artwork, or just a cool picture that you can, through some twisted logic link to WoW, we will happily accept them.  We will be posting these at least once a week, and scaling up depending on submissions. Please send your submissions to zampics@gmail.com and we will post them for everyone to enjoy. -<a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/Xsarus">Xsarus</a> Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:02:49 -0000 Darkshore: Cataclysm Edition [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=22979 As the Beta moves on, in an recent interview Blizzard Game designers Luis Barriga and Craig Amai revealed some information on the remake of Darkshore. Wryxian <a href="http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14332935339">posted the questions and answers</a> on the European Blizzard forums. It's great to see the challenges and hard work Blizzard is putting into even the smallest zones, not just the world reskinned, but a complete changing of the zones and storylines. It's interesting how they pull the lore into the remade zones, and how they pointed out the destruction of entire 'species' in this area. Allowing us, the players, much more immersion into our leveling experience, and the gigantic vortex at the center of the zone, which strikes me as rather epic. Even causing me to consider leveling an Alliance toon!<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>Blizzard is creating an environment where new and old players can work together as they experience the overhauled zones. The new players getting an epic experience and the old players re-experiencing the new and improved Azeroth, with hopes that some of our skill, or experience, rubs off on them. So come join our great discussions of everything World of Warcraft related. Is there a quest you’re hoping isn't cut for Cataclysm? A quest line or lore character you're looking forward to meeting or completing? I, for one, can't wait to see what Blizzard has in store for us in the upcoming months. -<a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/BeanX">Beanx</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:18:22 -0000 Large-scale Study of MMO Player Interactions [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=22978 We've all seen the threads started by researchers on these forums asking questions, or directing us to surveys. They’ve wanted to know everything from details about your character’s appearance and race, questions about who you interact with, to uncomfortable probing queries about how your social life is supposedly failing because of your online gaming habits. So what if they didn’t have to ask? This is just the case in a recently published article (<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/107/31/13636.full.pdf+html" target="_blank">http://www.pnas.org/content/107/31/13636.full.pdf+html</a>) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The study involved the space-age browser based MMO Pardus (<a href="http://www.pardus.at/" target="_blank">http://www.pardus.at/</a>), and dove deeper into the interactions between players than previous studies, by recording a number of different player interactions.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>So what did the researchers find with all this data-mining? Honestly, very little that was surprising. To use the authors' words "Positive links are highly reciprocal, negative links are not." People are going to trade more with people they PM (whisper / Private Message); they are more likely to be friends with people they chat with, and they aren't likely to attack people they interact with frequently. Not only that, but these correlations got stronger over time, with people being increasingly less likely to betray their allies the longer they played together. On the other hand, people who attacked others didn't often become mutual enemies. Apparently this is because ganking is just as big a problem in Pardus as it is in WoW. People preferred to only attack players who appeared much weaker than them; in the words of the authors "a strong player is more likely to attack a weaker player to secure a win." Fair fights, apparently, were exceedingly rare. So does this mean the end of those questionnaires? That much is far from certain. The results of all the data mining didn’t really yield that much surprising; though it did allow the scientists to quantify the interactions, which is always a plus from a scientific point of view. Of course this kind of probing inquiry is likely enough to make the more squeamish among us yearn for the days of annoying questions threads. - <a href="http://wow.allakhazam.com/users/someproteinguy">someproteinguy</a>  <a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:05:47 -0000