The Wizards of Technology

There is truth behind the addage "too much of a good thing".  According to WoW Insider the article I'm including beow says it all:

 

15-year-old collapses after playing Wrath for hours on no sleep or food
 by Mike Schramm

Reader Danny sent us this article from Holland Sweden, where apparently (a rough translation of the piece, thanks to Google, is after the break), a young boy of 15 was taken to the hospital after collapsing while playing Wrath of the Lich King. He reportedly had played the game for fifteen hours straight, and because he'd only gotten two hours of sleep and had almost nothing to eat the entire time, felt cramps and apparently collapsed from exhaustion.

Obviously, it's a stretch to blame this on the game -- doing anything for 15 hours straight with no sleep or food won't be good for your health. There were millions of people who played this very same game this weekend (some probably even for the same amount of time or more) and had no problems at all -- they realize that to stay healthy, you take breaks, get sleep, and eat healthy. But this kid (and his parents) didn't do things correctly, and as a result, he ended up in the hospital.

Hopefully the kid's all right, and the parents have learned their lesson: they have decided to limit his time in front of the computer, which is exactly what they should do if he can't limit it himself. The article ends by saying that "teenagers" around the world are playing the new expansion, except that the average age of gamers is now up to just under 30, and the average World of Warcraft player is actually older than that. Fortunately, the vast majority of them know how to enjoy the game and stay safe and healthy at the same time.

Update: As our commenters point out, this story's been picked up by English news sites around the net, including The Local, Mail Online, and the Times Online. Additionally, the use of "Halland," below, is sic -- Google's translator spelled it that way, not us. We're now being told there is a place in Sweden called Halland, and that this happened there, not in Holland.

Here's the text of the article, translated into English by Google Translator:
A 15-year-old boy in Halland was taken to hospital after having spent a day in front of the new World of Warcraft. Food-and lack of sleep in front of the computer led to that he was cramping. Now warns his father others.

- I want to warn other young people and parents, "says the father to the Evening Post.

The boy and his six friends met on Saturday night to play the nysläppta Wrath of the Lich King. In one day, it was only two hours sleep and a small breakfast in front of the computer. At 14 o'clock on Sunday, the boy collapsed.

Seizures reminded on an epileptic seizure as the family alerted SOS. The boy was taken by ambulance to Halmstads hospital where he received his fluid and nutrition drip.

- We were terrified proposed, but he is out of danger," said the father to the newspaper.

The diagnosis was that the boy was eliminated in a combination of concentrated gaming, sleep deprivation and poor nutrition. The boy had to stay overnight and take back their lost sleep.

Now, the two parents that the boy must limit their time in front of the computer. They have talked with friends who also will cut down on their computer gaming.

At the same time, teenagers around the world to play World of Warcraft as never beforeThe latest version of the game expected to hit all-time Sales for the game.

 

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If you didn't have a chance to upgrade to WotLK, Blizzard has made it easier, this is now available via WorldofWarcraft.com!

 

You can now buy account-upgrade keys and download the game client for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King directly through the account-management section of www.worldofwarcraft.com. The direct online upgrade method is the most convenient way to upgrade to Wrath of the Lich King and join the millions of players who are already adventuring in Northrend.

All you need to do is:

1. Login to Account Management
2. Click the "Upgrade Online" link.
3. Enter your credit card information.
4. Follow the link to download the Wrath of the Lich King game client.

That's it! If you haven't upgraded your account yet, now's your chance to take your World of Warcraft experience to the next level, whenever you want.

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We all got to get around in game and WorldofWarcraft.com has made sure all the latest changes and information are available.  If only the New York City Subway was this efficient.

 

We've updated our Public Transportation page with some of the new transportation options in Wrath of the Lich King. Check it out to see what's changed.

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We have all heard the stories about how WoW has hurt people's relationships or marriages, but for one couple in the United Kingdom had a divorce over one online game and the ex-wife found new love in WoW.  This was like an online soap opera with how this one played out.  The article from the Associated Press is featured below:

 

Virtual affair leads to real divorce for UK couple

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) -- A virtual affair is ending a real-life marriage in southwest England.

Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life - an online community where players adopt personas called avatars, mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds.

"I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game," Taylor told the South West News Service press agency. "It looked really affectionate. He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more."

The online drama shows how emotionally invested some people have become in their virtual identities, said Ellen Helsper, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute who has studied the impact of the Web on relationships.

"For a while there was this impression that as long as it's online, it doesn't matter. But research has shown it's not a separate world," she said, adding that infidelity was "just as painful, whether it's electronic or physical."

Taylor, 28, moved in with her husband Dave Pollard, 40, in Newquay, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) west of London, after the pair met in a chat room in 2003, according to the press agency's account. Both are disabled, Taylor said.

Both of them created personalities in Second Life, the three-dimensional virtual world with millions of users.

Taylor - represented in the game by a slim, dark-haired young woman with a penchant for cowboy outfits - first wed her beloved in a virtual ceremony held in an exotic tropical setting. She and Pollard - whose Second Life avatar was sharp-suited, long-haired muscleman - then married in real life at a registry office.

The svelte images of their avatars stand in contrast to their real wedding photo, which shows a plump couple - him balding with glasses and a red boutonniere; her in a flower patterned shirt instead of a dress.

Their marriage started to fall apart after Taylor allegedly caught her husband's avatar having cyber sex with a virtual prostitute last year. She said she had fallen asleep and when she woke up and spotted the pair cavorting on the computer screen.

She gave him a second chance but then discovered he allegedly strayed again in April. It was unclear how she learned of the couch encounter.

The case shows an increasingly tenuous line separating virtual relationships from the real people behind them.

In Britain last month, a truck driver was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of his estranged wife who he killed after he found out she changed her Facebook status to "single" only days after they split up. Facebook is an online social network although users tend to post real pictures of themselves.

In the United States, a woman was charged in Delaware in August with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through the Second Life.

And in Japan, police said last month that a user of the country's popular "Maple Story" Web site - an online adventure game - was so infuriated by her sudden virtual divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona.

The woman was jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.

Attempts to contact Pollard - both over the phone and through his avatar - were unsuccessful.

But Taylor, reached by telephone on Friday, confirmed that she was getting a divorce next week. She refused to go into detail, saying South West News has prohibited her from talking to reporters. The news service confirmed that Taylor was under contract.

Despite their breakup, both Pollard and Taylor appear to be committed to scouring the Web for love.

Taylor reportedly found a new man in an alternative cyber-universe, World of Warcraft.

Pollard's Second Life profile, meanwhile, says he is virtually engaged again and can't wait to marry his new fiance "in rl."

That's short for "real life."

Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.

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If the latency issues got you down Blizzard has created new realms and is offering free transfers.  According to Bornakk on the WorldofWarcraft.com forums check out the details:

 

We will be offering free character moves from selected high population realms to a brand new realm, Fizzcrank, to assist in population dispersal. The ability to move a character on the selected source realms will become available starting on Monday, November 10 at 12:00PM PST, and is scheduled to run until Monday, November 24 at 12:00PM PST.

In the event that these realms meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience. No characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.

Once the transfers open you can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html

We will continue to evaluate realms and add more free character moves as we feel they are needed.

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For everyone who has been dealing with the in game mail issue and the frustration of the realms being down I have some good news from the WorldofWarcraft.com forums.  Tyren posted the following:

 

As many players have noticed, there have been service issues which resulted in additional downtime over the last two days, and we would like to provide an update as to what the issues were as well as what we are doing to address them. During yesterday’s maintenance, an issue occurred which resulted in mail not displaying properly in players’ mailboxes. We have now identified the cause of this issue and are currently working on resolving it. Players should begin to receive the impacted mail over the next several days. Our customer service team will be unable to expedite the resolution for this issue. We appreciate your patience as the automatic fix is implemented.

In addition, an issue occurred last night where certain Arena and Honor items were displaying their costs incorrectly. The costs of the affected items have been corrected. Our in-game support department is currently working to resolve any problems that came with this issue, and we would like to ask that you please remain patient during this process.

We understand the frustrations and difficulties that you may have experienced surrounding the recent issues and extended maintenance. As such, we will be providing 1-day game time compensation for the recent events within the next two weeks. Please check the Account Management page after the two-week period to verify the game time has been successfully added to the account. As always, thank you for your patience regarding the recent issues, and we look forward to seeing you in Northrend!

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It's finally here!  After the all the patches and updates one of the most anticipated game releases has arrived!  WorldofWarcraft.com has now announced it and made it official as I have posted below!  So Hail to the Lich King baby!  Northrend here I come!

 

For years, the heroes of the Alliance and Horde have fought against the evils in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, against the demons of the Burning Legion in Outland, and against each other -- all the while unaware that a threat more dangerous than any they had yet encountered was preparing to make its move in the icy continent of Northrend. Now the Lich King, Arthas Menethil, has emerged from Icecrown Citadel to claim the world as his own. Heroes of the Alliance and Horde gather in Northrend to make a stand against the malevolent being that dares to declare himself Azeroth’s one true king... and seeks to scour all life from the world.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is now live and available at a store near you. Featuring a massive new continent, the brand-new death knight Hero class, unique dungeons, an open-world PvP zone with siege vehicles and destructible buildings, and hundreds of brand-new quests, Wrath of the Lich King provides a huge variety of content for solo and group players. The expansion is available in both a standard and Collector's Edition; find out more about the latter in our Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Preview. To learn more about what awaits you in Northrend, visit our Wrath of the Lich King Features Page and check out the primer to get you started.

During installation of the expansion, you'll be able to upgrade the World of Warcraft account you play to allow access to Wrath of the Lich King. You can click here to upgrade as well.

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This came to me via Nethaera and if you use the WoW Forums it is important!

 

All forums on the official World of Warcraft forums will be temporarily switched over to read-only mode. While we would like to make every effort to ensure the forums allow the community to interact with each other, the current situation does not allow for this, or allow Blizzard to relay information to the community. Thus, all forums will be available as read-only to allow us to share information with the public. We hope that we can keep the limitation of access to a minimum and revert the forums to full functionality as soon as possible.

 

  We have also posted up some information on the Wrath Launch Help Center that can be found here:

            http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12651004995&postId=126492765041&sid=1#0

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What does the US Military and WoW have in common?  Many people would scratch their heads at that question but, if Doom can be used to train shooting why not use WoW for other things right?  How about testing artificial intelligence on the battlefield, at least a virtual one.  Well it is a definate possibility according to Switched.   I found this great article from them, and have included it below.

US Army Using 'World of Warcraft' to Create Virtual Soldiers?
by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 7th 2008 at 10:51AM

 

We've covered some crazy things from the U.S. Army, including telepathic thought-helmets and pledges to be one-fifth robot by 2020. Interesting stuff, for sure, but perhaps a little too far-out for most. While the Army will speak about a number of similarly wacky initiatives in its upcoming Science Conference, one idea will strike fear into the hearts of gamers everywhere: a plan to deploy virtual soldiers (to test advances in artificial intelligence) into the battlefields of 'World of Warcraft' and 'EVE Online.'

The games are two of the most popular massively multiplayer online games currently on the market, filled with people who spend hours and hours (days... weeks...) of their free time, plus hundreds of dollars, to battle against each other. Understandably, the game's fans tend to take it all quite seriously. The Army hopes to use this environment as a testing ground for its virtual soldiers, who will work to infiltrate the games and attempt to deceive the human gamers.

"Why?" you might ask, and we'd have to say in response: "Good question." This particular branch of the armed forces has already shown a penchant for video games, even 'World of Warcraft' in particular, so perhaps these games will form some sort of virtual battlefield of the future.

 

Who would have thought?  Guess we may be seeing some of these advances on Future Weapons or some other show on the Military Channel...  

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With the economy woes across the nation, it makes you wonder how gaming tycoons are faring among the chaos of the capitalist market.   In recent studies, people are finding that the gaming industry is still making money overall.  The reason behind this is the fact dollar per hour it is far less expensive to play a game for hours than it is to go out to dinner and a movie.  Not that the math required there is that complicated, but it does make a lot of sense. 

So how does Blizzard fit into all this?  Well, as far as gaming gurus go they have just hit 11 million members with World of Warcraft and lets not forget that Activision has helped them as well, with titles like Guitar Hero, that can only expand.  To give you a more in depth view of how else this is all good for Blizzard and Activision I found a great  article on arstechnica.com.

Activision financials show reliance on WoW, GH cash cows
By Ben Kuchera | Published: November 06, 2008 - 10:50AM CT

Activision Blizzard has released its financials for the third quarter, but while things are looking strong, the company is beholden to only a few very large franchises. The company announced revenues of $711 million with an operating loss of $194 million. These financial results were better than expected, and the company has no illusions about where its money comes from: Guitar Hero, World of WarCraft, and Call of Duty. 

A big chunk of the losses came from "one time costs related to the business combination with Vivendi Games," and the company has begun to aggressively invest in itself, announcing that the Board of Directors will repurchase up to $1 billion of the company's common stock. 

Digging deeper into the numbers shows just how much Activision Blizzard needs its cash cows. When looking at the report, "MMOG" is listed as providing 42 percent of the company's net revenues. That means World of Warcraft accounts for almost half of Activision Blizzard's revenue. With the upcoming release of the Lich King expansion reigniting interest in the title, that number will likely rise even higher. It's also noted that Guitar Hero, as a line of games, has been the top-selling franchise across every system year to date. Guitar Hero: On Tour was the best-selling DS title this quarter.

 Don't expect these trends to slow down, which is worrying for gamers who are more interested in quality than quantity. Activision Blizzard has promised many more releases for 2009, including multiple Call of Duty and Guitar Hero releases. Guitar Hero is an easy game to cash in on: you simply add new songs, reskin some characters, and release it as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Guitar Hero: World Tour also contained a trailer for Guitar Hero: Metallica, which will feature the metal band's music and will likely retail for $60, more with a guitar. Guitar Hero On Tour featured a somewhat clunky guitar peripheral on the Nintendo DS, and Activision already has a sequel ready to go with Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. The company sent us a preview build of the game, and although the track list is strong, the game couldn't have taken much time or money to complete. New note charts plus a few new art assets = a new Guitar Hero release. Expect a flood to hit the market, and that's not including hardware, as Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick believes "every man, woman, and child everywhere needs at least nine guitars."

Following the huge success of Call of Duty 4 and the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War, Activision Blizzard also promises more releases in that series. Blizzard also recently announced the controversial decision to break StarCraft 2 into three separate releases, a move that led to some editorial bickering over whether it was a smart move or yet another way to cash in on the title. If I were a betting man, I would expect more World of Warcraft expansions to be coming down the line as well. 

The financials seem sound, and the games have maintained a high level of quality so far, but there is a very real chance of Activision Blizzard running its biggest moneymakers into the ground with too many releases, too soon. Whether gamers will continue to purchase plastic guitars with novelty face plates for band after band, or if it's possible to create multiple Call of Duty games every year and keep the quality high, are big questions. How Activision Blizzard answers is up to them. 

 

I would have to agree with many points the above article makes about quality over quantity as Blizzard is meticulous when it comes to product and release.  They try and make things as close to perfect and flawless as possible before putting a title out on the market, which sometimes causes delays but they have yet to disappoint and so far each game has been worth the wait in my opinion.  They also have excellent customer service standards, recently, with one of the latest patches there were some issues that created latency and instance issues on World of Warcraft.  Blizzard, gave numerous account holders a three day credit for the inconvenience.  This tells you they value the people who keep their business running.  In a competitive industry this is a key factor especially as the gaming industry evolves and continues to become more competitive.

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If you just absolutlely can't wait for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, WorldofWarcraft.com has the list of midnight openings across the United States.  Take a look at the full details:

 

All of Azeroth will feel the Wrath of the Lich King in just a couple of weeks, when the second World of Warcraft expansion officially launches. If you want to be among the first to get your hands on the game, thousands of retailers around the world are hosting special midnight store openings to celebrate the release, and will start selling the game at 12:00 a.m. (local time) on November 13. In addition, Blizzard Entertainment developers and executives will be on hand to sign copies and meet players at four locations throughout the United States: Fry's Electronics in Anaheim, CA; Best Buy in New York City; and GameStop in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX. Check out our midnight opening page for full details.

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Folks!

When I saw this guild name I just had to jump screens and write about it!

And now….without any further ado and for your quasi-BDSM pleasure ( or not) the guild name of the day!

Chained Angles!

 

Nuff said!

 

Safe travels to all!

 

Viloche’

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In a bold business decision Blizzard made an announcement today in regards to some of the issues people have experinced since the release of the last patch.  On the World of Warcraft forums, per Nethaara this is the latest!

 

"Since the release of the latest patch, Echoes of Doom, we have gone through a series of optimizations in order to increase overall game performance. We've seen steady, stable populations and a flurry of activity and excitement during the Hallow's End event and the latest rumblings of zombie attacks. It's been an exciting time for us as we draw closer to the release of our second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

We've reached a point where we feel we can now accurately evaluate the events since the patch release. Though overall downtime has been minimal, players have experienced latency, inaccessible instances, and general frustrations. We are therefore announcing that we will be issuing compensation to accounts in all realms in the US, Oceanic, and Latin American regions. Accounts that are currently active and in good standing will be credited with an additional three days of game time.

We would like to thank you for your patience during this time and look forward to seeing you in game! "

 

I've played a variety of online games and I have never seen a company do something like this for their players.  All I have to say is that this shows you how valued the members of World of Warcraft are!

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We've had some requests for more thing about the invasion and event ramping up to the Wrath of the Lich King Launch.  I found this article by the London Times about the recent invasion and it contains some great information to the method behind Blizzard's motives.  There are also some very interesting real life paralles within the article, you can read the full piece below:

 

October 28, 2008
World of Warcraft plague halted by Blizzard

 

The Warcraft's authorities have acted to control a virtual plague they released into the popular online game last week

 

The makers of World of Warcraft, an online game with more than 11 million players, today brought an end to a virtual plague that has infected hundreds of thousands of players, causing uproar among many fans who said it was spoiling the game.

Blizzard, the software company that runs the game, had deliberately introduced the virulent disease into its virtual world last week. The “undead plague” was designed to be highly contagious and, if left untreated, would turn players them into flesh-eating zombies.

It is thought that scientists have been tracking the progress of this week’s disease, believing that the game would provide valuable information for researchers investigating how people would react to the spread of an outbreak in the real world – and how it could be contained.

The game’s creators faced a torrent of criticism as the disease spread quickly through the game's lands of Azeroth, with some fans arguing that the plague may put off beginners who would not be able to find a cure.

World of Warcraft players usually enjoy a fantasy life of quests, treasure collecting and monster killing. During the plague, players would be infected by contact with a zombie and, unless they could find a cure within minutes, they too would turn into zombies and continue to spread the disease.

Players could avoid joining the legion of the undead by killing and reviving their characters but they could, and often would, become infected again.

Blizzard faced criticism from fans four years ago when a similar disease accidentally spread through the game killing thousands of characters. The millions of players spend about £9 per month in subscriptions, giving Blizzard a keen financial incentive to keep players happy.

The plague was timed to coincide with the release of the latest “expansion” of the game, called Wrath of the Lich King, next month.

Though many fans of the game have applauded Blizzard’s decision, saying it was yet another example of the company’s ability to create interesting ideas to engage players, others have flooded online forums with criticism.

“It’s not a plague/invasion - it’s a game,” wrote one disgruntled fan with the username Mutakmien. “If it’s not fun, then it’s a bad game and this event has turned World of Warcraft into a bad game for many people.”

A Blizzard executive wrote to fans, saying: “While we recognise that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a ‘living and breathing world’ means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players.”

In 2004, the “corrupted blood plague” spread infected thousands of players within days. The disease was designed to affect only those who ventured into caves, but some mischievous Warcraft players worked out how to spread the disease and infect others. The game’s programmers were caught by surprise and could not initially stop the epidemic reaching the virtual world’s towns and cities.

The response of many fans was fierce, with some even comparing Blizzard’s response to the crisis with the US Government’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina.

Some scientists said at the time that the responses of people in the game were similar to those seen during real-world epidemics. Some rushed to the centre of the epidemic to help victims, while others rushed out of the major towns and cities to ensure survival.

 

 

 

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For those player that need to keep WoW with you along with other Blizzard titles you'll love this!  You can get ringtones and wallpapers for your mobile devices take a look from WorldofWarcraft.com.

 

Carry a little piece of Azeroth wherever your real-world travels take you with our new World of Warcraft-themed wallpapers and ringtones for your phone. We've just launched a new service in the United States that lets you download content related to your favorite Blizzard Entertainment games to supported mobile phones. Currently, these wallpapers and ringtones are available through carriers AT&T, Cellular One, Sprint, and Verizon; support for T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile is coming soon.

Over 65 pieces of content are currently available, including ringtones of World of Warcraft's capital city themes and the distinctive murloc gurgle, as well as wallpapers featuring character artwork, class and faction emblems, and more. Visit the new Mobile Ringtones and Wallpapers page for more information -- and while you're there, be sure to check out our StarCraft and Diablo mobile content, too.

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So the Zombies are gone and now new people find new ways to grief their own faction.  I stood for at least an hour watching a person kill the Argent Dawn in Stormwind  after being asked by other players to stop numerous times.  Did she?  No, she didn't and I hope she realized how rude and inconsiderate this is to her own faction.  She interrupted the ability for other players to turn in and get quests from the NPC's and wouldn't even let a person talk to one long enough to do either.  So let's delve into what a griefer is, per Wikipedia here is what I found:

"Griefers differ from typical players in that they do not play the game in order to achieve objectives defined by the game world. Instead, they seek to harass other players, causing grief. In particular, they may use tools such as stalking, hurling insults, and exploiting unintended game mechanics. Griefing as a gaming play style is not simply any action that may be considered morally incorrect. Though the staff of each online game defines griefing in a manner that best fits their game, certain criteria must be met for an action to be considered griefing. An act of griefing involves the following three types of actions to be considered grief play:

• The use or abuse of a game mechanic that was not intended by the game's developers.
• The inability of the victim to exact some means of retribution beyond utilizing similar unintended game mechanics.
• The intended purpose of an act of griefing must be to negatively impact the game play of another person.

An act of griefing usually meets all these criteria as well as any game specific criteria set by the developers of the game."

Even after players healed the NPC and it chased her out of town, she still came back and started all over again.  After a bit it makes you wonder.  Numerous players came forward and asked the player to stop as it was interrupting their game play.  Yet, she continued saying those players, including myself as I said something to her were interrupting hers. 

Here's the issue with this, it was not like Horde was invading and we could PvP them out of the city.  Unlike when an opposing Faction targets NPC's the locals can fight back, but since this technically is against her own Faction there isn't much one can do other than the following options...

1.  Heal the NPC and hope they kill her.
2.  Attempt to duel her so she stops.
3. Attempt  block her targeting to make it more difficult and hope she gets bored.

When I looked this one up and learned she was flagged for PvP it could be considered a violation of the Terms of Use because no one from her own faction can do a lot to stop her and for that reason it could be deemed as a form of griefing/harassment.   This is what I learned, "Because there are no PvP solutions for (Horde vs. Horde or Alliance vs. Alliance), normal policies and guidelines will be enforced."  That rule was created for PvP servers but in this instance it can also be applied here. 

This is the other rule that needs to be considered and the consequences:

"Zone/Area Disruption

This category includes language and/or actions intended to disturb groups of players or areas of the world, such as:
Disruption of player sponsored events or gatherings
Excessive use of in-game sounds or visuals
Excessively casting spells with noticeable effects in crowded areas
Impeding or blocking access to an NPC, doodad, doorway, or any other area of the world that a player would normally be able to access

If a player is found to have disrupted an area of the world or a group of players, he/she may:

Be given a warning
Be temporarily suspended from the game if behavior continues"*

I'm not writing this to police others activities, but I feel people need a voice.  It is not fun when other players get a thrill out of disrupting peoples play.  Which is exactly what this situation was.  I will never be able to comprehend what makes a person behave in such a despicable and selfish manner.  One can only guess if the GM's will do anything even though players stated they reported her, I hope they do as this behavior is disruptive and disrespectful to a fellow player.  Perhaps my words will not completely fall upon deaf ears and something may come it, but alas all I can do is let people know and inform them. On a good note after a while the player simply vanished and I prey she learned her lesson, but I have a sinking feeling she'll be back if allowed to persue this type of behavior...

*Taken from the Blizzard support page about harrassment.

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World of Warcraft has reached the 11 million member mark.  For us who have been playing a while this should come as no surprise, especially with Wrath of the Lich King around the corner. 

 

The community of World of Warcraft players around the world continues to grow, recently hitting a new high of 11 million subscribers. We just wanted to take a moment to share the news and say thank you to all the current, new, and returning players around the world whose enthusiasm and support have made this milestone possible.

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Folks!

Hi, Viloche' again.

One of the things this writer has noticed and enjoyed are the..colorful... guild names around the realm. Of course guild names identifies what a guild is about and tapestry of names are amazing as well as the personalities in them. However once in a while there is that certain groups of players that are united in their take on mutual identity.

Hence this reporter will ( as they are seen about the realm) write a quick little article I like to call: "Guild Name of the Day"

Todays gem is:

Kamakazie Kittens

Got to love it!

Safe Travels!

Viloche!

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As one of the largest MMORPG’s in the world, this game has literally created an empire that expands beyond the horizons of the gaming world. One can not forget the infamous Leeroy Jenkins video, which became a Jeopardy answer. There have even been various international commercials for the game that have featured such personalities, as Mr. T, Verne Troyer, William Shatner, Jean Claude Van Damme and Willy Toledo.

The games popularity and culture are ever expanding to various media, like the trading card game, board game, comic books and novels. Even and episode of South Park cashed in on the popularity with its episode “Make Love Not Warcraft.” Toyota also used the games popularity to advertise its Tacoma trucks.

 

 

YouTube has numerous player created videos for the game from the various dances to other in game home spun creations, and more are added daily. The various commercials, ads, even the South Park Episode and more are available on the YouTube site.

Though some may view the game’s popularity as an addiction and have even blamed it for marriage troubles, family issues etc. On the other end of the spectrum it has led to the unification of couples and families as well. Families play together and enjoy knowing where their kids are along with the quality time. People have met spouses and girlfriends/boyfriends alike within the game and have even had in game weddings. There are even services, such as Datecraft, which are specifically geared to match make couples that play.

Overall, one cannot ignore the phenomenon that is World of Warcraft. The following it has created has a loyalty and fan base unto itself, which has crossed countries, cultures and races in a way that unifies people unlike anything I have witnessed.

When I journeyed to BlizzCon in Anaheim this year this was certainly evident. Just in the group of Fan Sites, there were people from all across the country, the United Kingdom, France and even Australia to name a few. I have a feeling as technology advances; in the future the gaming world will keep expanding in this manner.

*Sources include Wikipedia, YouTube, and Datecraft.com

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RayneStorm sent me this great stuff from the WorldofWarcraft.com forums!  As we all know the event does have it's pros and cons, so far my biggest beef has been the high level character going into low level areas to puposefully wreak havok, this may be entertaining but in the gaming world it is considered griefing.  This event is meant to be fun, I hope all players keep that in mind during their involvement!

 

"We'd like to thank players for participating so zealously (and valiantly!) during the Great Zombie Plague of '08. Our intention with this event was to create something memorable and to literally change the face of Azeroth for a few days. This event is just one of many leading up to Wrath of the Lich King. As you know, the Scourge Invasion is now live as well and there is some other cool stuff coming up before all is said and done. Also, Hallow's End continues on!

While we recognize that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a "living and breathing world" means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players as they head to Northrend to defeat the Lich King. The Lich King's goals (as you will soon learn) are to turn the Horde and Alliance not only on one another, but on their own kind as well. I think the plague truly demonstrated this firsthand.

So it looks like a cure has finally been found… for now.

Thank you for participating in our most memorable event to date… for better or for…. brrrrrrraaaaaains… " Couple of other important notes:

* The scourge invasion will continue for a few more days.
* The prologue event is not over! More to come!!
* The Karazhan boss will be up for approximately another week still
* We increased the respawn rate of the Necropoli
* Zombie cure should kick in by around noon PST   -Tigole-



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