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Breakfast Topic: Casualties of casual gaming
The other day over dinner, my wife and I were talking about a new game on Facebook and how easy it would be for us to game the system. My brother-in-law stopped us mid-conversation and asked, "What the hell happened to you two? You used to be hardcore raiders! Now you're talking about min-maxing a Facebook game!" My wife and I looked sheepishly at each other and hung our heads in shame. This is what it had come to. While we're committed to playing together come Cataclysm, we had now been reduced to the most casual of casual gamers -- playing browser-based games with no real, complex story or engaging gameplay. At least, nothing as complex or engaging as the World of Warcraft. But the reality is that casual gaming is a bigger phenomenon than we can imagine. Zynga's Farmville has over 61.6 million active users -- that's almost six times WoW's 11.5 million subscriber base. Never mind that World of Warcraft is subscription-based and that not all of Farmville's players are paying customers. Forget about revenue for a moment. That's 61.6 million gamers playing one game.
Email confirmation added to authenticator setup to foil hackers
For a while now, account thieves have been putting authenticators on their stolen accounts to buy more time for their scumbaggery. Blizzard has recently made that more difficult by requiring email confirmation when an authenticator is added to a Battle.net account. Rather than just logging in and putting in the appropriate information, you now have to follow the steps in a confirmation email sent to the address registered in your Battle.net account. Note: Changing the email address on the account requires not only your password (which the account thieves already have at this point) but also the answer to your security question. So make sure the answer to your security question is not guessable or obtainable by any phishing information. As I have suggested before, if you use a password for your security answer rather than an actual answer, you are adding a very thick level of security. Make it a separate password you use just for security questions, like p45sw0rd (don't use that one). We don't know how long ago Blizzard added email confirmation The email confirmation has been active since July 27 and we believe it will reduce the workload of Blizzard's customer service. More importantly, this will make getting your account back less painful. Of course, the best way to prevent someone from stealing your account and then adding an authenticator to it is to put an authenticator on it yourself. There are keyfob and mobile versions available. [Thanks for the tip, Joel!]
Blizzard responds to common Real ID concerns
Nethaera (Blizzard community manager) posted answers to some of the common Real ID questions and concerns on the forums today. With the PR disaster that was Blizzard's original Real ID on the forums concept, a follow-up aimed at easing tensions in the community -- even after the retraction -- was to be expected. While Blizzard offered some good news on things people have been requesting, they also dodged other points for the moment in true Blizzard style. Some highlights from the announcement: no current plans for an online handle to be used in game with Real ID instead of your name feature to disable your name's appearance in Friends of Friends list coming around the time of StarCraft II plans for some sort of unique ID on the WoW forums The full announcement is after the break.
New Battle.net site is live
The URL may include the word "beta," but the new Battle.net site is live and seems to be fully functional. Some changes we've noticed at first glance are: Complete change to the interface and navigation. You can check a box to stay logged in. It gives the status of their franchises. What's not there: an ability to chat with Real ID friends from the browser. Ah well. We don't know as of yet when the old Battle.net site will be phased out, but we'll keep you posted.
The Daily Quest: Shh, the internet dragon is sleeping
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. The internet can breathe again. Earlier today Blizzard announced that they will not be requiring real names to post on the official Blizzard forums, and the blogosphere in response breathed a huge sigh of relief. Here's a whole mess of thank-you's and other notes regarding the decision from various bloggers: The Pink Pigtail Inn asks if the wounds can be healed. Empowered Fire is pretty giddy about the results. Achtung Panzercow says "Yub Yub." That's Ewok for "We won." Geek Girl Diva has a short and sweet note to Blizzard. Lorehound asks what we learned from all of this. Warcraftic discusses the Warcraft community and communication. Mana Obscura gives us their thoughts on the power of the fans. HuskyStarcraft recorded a video response to the notice about the decision. Can we go back to just killing internet dragons now? I think so.
Mike Morhaime: Real names will not be required on official Blizzard forums
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Blizzard_Retracts_Real_Names_NOT_Required_On_Official_Forum'; In a move that is sure to generate just as much discussion as the initial decision itself, Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, has released a statement that says "real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums." Morhaime says that Blizzard has been "constantly monitoring the feedback" given by the community and that they are "driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games." The other upgrades to the forums will still apply, such as rating posts up or down and conversation threading. This will, no doubt, make many members of the community quite happy. The full statement (updated) after the break.
Customizing and opting out of Real ID
This is not a discussion of the good (yay, crossrealm chat!) and the bad (boo, privacy fail) of Real ID. This is a guide for how to truly opt out of this feature and how to adjust the settings if you do participate in game. To be clear, everyone who does not have a parentally controlled account has in fact opted into Real ID, due to a security flaw. Addons have access to the name on your account right now. So you need to be very careful about what addons you download -- make sure they are reputable. In order to actually opt out, you need to set up parental controls on your account. This is not an easy task. Previous to the Battle.net merge, you could just go to a page and set them up. Done. Now, you must set up an account as one that is under parental control. Once your account is that of a child's (a several-step process), your settings default to Real ID-disabled. Any Real ID friends you have will no longer be friends. In order to enable it, you need to check the Enable Real ID box. Setting up parental controls: Go to the appropriate battle.net site for your region. (That link should take you there.) Push the Create or Manage a Battle.net Account button. Log in as normal. Click on Parental Controls, which is an option listed under Manage My Games. (And, if you're like me, you'll be sad that you are still not in the beta.) Choose the No - Setup Parental Controls button. Fill in your info as both the child's account and your own. (Why they make this distinction, I don't know. Parental controls always used to be an option for adults to manage their own game time.) You will receive an email. You need to save this email, because the link in there is the only way to get to the parental controls. Otherwise, you have to make Blizzard resend it. Click the link to get into the controls. Save Settings and then be told it will take up to 30 minutes to go into effect. That is how to opt out. How to optimize opting in is after the break.
The Daily Quest: What's in a name
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. The internet today has been awfully, awfully chatty -- which is interesting given the topic. Since Blizzard's announcement earlier today that the official forums would be displaying the real names of players come Cataclysm, people haven't been able to keep quiet about how they are going to be ... keeping quiet once these new forum changes come into play. Let's take a look at a few blogs around the web regarding the new Real ID changes. World of Matticus talks about the good and bad of forum-wide Real ID. Big Bear Butt plans for a Cataclysm -- not the expansion itself, but the changes it brings. Empowered Fire discusses their disappointment in the forum changes. Broken Toys tells Blizzard "You got your Facebook in your message board about my orc game."
Your real name to appear on Blizzard's official forums
Long a source of rampant trolling and epic flamewars, Blizzard's official World of Warcraft forums will soon be a lot less anonymous. The company announced today that it will be using the Real ID system, which was recently implemented into Battle.net, on its forums. Once Real ID is in place, each catty remark and witty comeback on Blizzard's forums will have the poster's real first and last name attached to it. (Previously, posters could hide behind their in-game character names.) Real ID will be rolled into WoW's forums by the release of the Cataclysm expansion later this year. Additionally, the system will be added to the StarCraft 2 forums before the game's July 27 launch. Blizzard's eating its own dog food, too -- its community representatives, previously known only by aliases, will also be posting under their real names. Additionally, forum posts will be subject to a new ranking system, replies to forum threads will be grouped, and Blizzard posters will be able to "broadcast" messages out to everyone on the game's forums. Blizzard says its goal with these changes is to form "a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships."
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm closed beta has begun
Blizzard has just announced that the closed beta test for the next World of Warcraft expansion has begun. Invites are going out now to players around the world who've signed up on Blizzard's Battle.net service, although there's no indication yet of just how many invites are out or how big the beta will be. If past tests are any indication, Blizzard will likely start it small and expand over time -- that's how the StarCraft 2 beta played out. This also means that information about the new expansion will start appearing online -- rumor has it that there is no NDA for the closed beta experience, so players who see the new content will be able to tell us all about it. Cataclysm will completely revamp the old World of Warcraft world, in addition to adding five more levels of content at endgame. The Wrath of the Lich King beta also began in early July, and showed up in stores in November a few years ago, so it's reasonable to assume the same timeline for Cataclysm. In the meantime, if you want to play, make sure your Battle.net account is set to opt-in and keep an eye out for a beta notice in your inbox. Good luck! %Gallery-70703%
Patch 3.3.5 PTR: Battle.net Real ID system
After several tries at character copies, extended-extended downtime and Battle.net issues, we've been able to hop onto the public test realm and play around with the new Real ID features. We were able to grab a lot of screenshots of the new chat features. Now, if you're not familiar with the Real ID system, I'll give you a quick summation. If you have a real-life person you know who also plays Blizzard games and you would like to keep in touch with them despite realm, faction or even game (Diablo III, StarCraft II or World of Warcraft), then you can now add them in a social media-type format with announcement, statuses and cross-realm/faction/game whispers. This is not something you want to do with someone you've only ever known in game. The reason you don't want to do this with just anybody is that you will be using your Battle.net email login. If you happen to try out this feature on the PTR, please note that we're still in an early test realm build and there are still a lot of bugs in the system. This means you're going to get Lua errors off of the default interface, and the Battle.net server managing your friends list is often down as they're tweaking things behind the scenes. It's the test realm; it's meant to test things. So don't take its stability as a sign of what the functionality will be like when the patch hits the live realms. %Gallery-92839%
StarCraft 2 and Battle.net to integrate Facebook features
Just when you thought your masterful Zerg Rushes couldn't get any more social -- you are reaching out and obliterating someone, after all -- Blizzard has announced that the new Battle.net and StarCraft 2 will soon sport Facebook features. The only feature mentioned in the announcement, however, is the ability to add StarCraft playing Facebook friends to your Battle.net friends list. The new feature will be added to the StarCraft 2 beta in "the near future" and should be available to all players when the full game hits retail this July. It's worth noting that the press release refers to the friend finding feature as "the first step in integration," so it sounds like there will be more Facebook features added over time. As long as we're not flooded with status updates every time someone gets "pwned," we're all for it. [Via Big Download]
Battle.net Real ID preview and FAQ
We're getting a lot of info today about Battle.net's new features. First it was Facebook integration and now a full explanation of the Real ID features. We previewed some of the features of Real ID before and there were some concerns. This Battle.net feature is completely voluntary and requires mutual acceptance. So the only people who will be your Real ID friends are the ones that you agree to (and they have to agree as well). Real ID features Real names for friends Your Real ID friends' names will appear next to their characters. Cross-Game chat You will be able to talk to your Real ID friends cross realm and in other games like StarCraft II and Diablo III. Rich Presence You will be able to snoop see what games and modes your Real ID friends are playing. So you'll know if they are just hanging around Dalaran. And they'll know the same about you. Broadcast You can broadcast short messages to all of your Real ID friends and view recent messages that they have broadcast. Friend once, see all characters Real ID friends can see all of each other's characters. All. You won't be able to pick and choose which ones can be seen, unless they are on another Battle.net account. Again, both friends have to agree to become Real ID friends and this will not be a mandatory feature of Battle.net. This is obviously a feature that you will want to use only with people that you don't mind knowing what Blizzard game you are playing on which character and where. The complete Real ID FAQ is after the break.
Battle.net will integrate with Facebook
Blizzard has just announced that you will be able to pull your Facebook friends into your Battle.net friends list. They will be testing this functionality soon in the StarCraft II beta. Since we know that the Battle.net functionality will come to WoW before Cataclysm, that means we'll be able to import our Facebook friends into our WoW friends list at that time. This is just another example of the worlds of Facebook and MMOs colliding. Vaneras -- Battle.net Facebook Integration The action taking place on the battlefield is just one part of the StarCraft II experience -- we're also working to make sure that you can easily connect, communicate, and play with your friends. To help accomplish that, the new version of Battle.net will offer integration with Facebook. This new functionality will start off by allowing you to quickly import Facebook friends into your Battle.net friends list, and additional features will be added over time. source Of course, the integration will be voluntary. This announcement does not mean that all those friends you have in Facebook just to increase your mafia will automatically know you are playing WoW. You will choose if you want to integrate and which friends to import. The full PR announcement after the break.
StarCraft 2 beta Mac client out now
Yes indeedy -- the wait is over for you Mac types, as Blizzard has released the Mac client version of the StarCraft 2 beta. We almost didn't think it would make that April deadline, but it did, a scant two days before the month ends. Those of you with a StarCraft 2 beta key can roll on over to Battle.net and start downloading right now. The rest of you can continue drooling over our hands-on of the beta, or check out the writeup on the single-player missions that we got to see last week. And if you really want a beta key as soon as possible, for Metzen's sake, get to pre-ordering!
Battle.net integration before Cataclysm
Do you want to talk to your friends even if they're on other servers, or the opposite faction on your server? Well, Blizzard aims to make that possible via Battle.net, and it's coming before Cataclysm. Zarhym - Re: Cataclysm Friends List Idea This is exactly what we are working on implementing with Battle.net and real-life friends. You'll be able to add friends at the Battle.net account level and talk to them while in-game whether they're on the opposing faction, a different realm, or another Blizzard game entirely. This is coming prior to Cataclysm. Q u o t e: Please tell me that people will not be able to "friend" me without my consent. I don't care to be tracked across servers and factions except by a couple people I know IRL. This is correct. No one outside of your faction on your realm will be able to communicate with you unless you accept their friend request, or they accept yours. You will still have your normal World of Warcraft Friends list, but we'll be adding in the ability to have Battle.net players on your Friends list as well. The characters on your Friends list will allow the same communication functionality which exists today. It's only when you've confirmed someone as a Battle.net friend that you can take advantage of the additional communication features. source The real surprise for me is that people playing, say, StarCraft II or Diablo III will be able to chat with people playing World of Warcraft via their Battle.net accounts. It's a definite extension of their Real ID program mentioned during the StarCraft II preview, and I'm even more surprised that it's going to be out before Cataclysm ships. I know that even if I don't play Diablo III (which is unlikely, how will I be able to resist the barbarian?), being able to talk to the various friends I have across six servers will be a positive boon for me.
Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 bans reach Icelandic proportions
Blizzard, in preparation for the launch of StarCraft 2 and the new Battle.net framework, recently banned over 320,000 Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 players that violated the company's Terms of Use by using hacks and third-party tools. According to a census taken earlier this year, there are currently 317,630 people living in Iceland. Let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that so many people play Blizzard's games, its moderators can ban more people than the entire population of the 175th largest country on the planet. Folks from all corners of the world -- not just Icelanders -- who were found to be using illicit means of self-improvement while playing the two games had the CD key tied to the cheated game in question revoked for 30 days, while repeat offenders were banned permanently. It's not worth it, our dear readers! Keep it legit! [Via WoW.com]
Blizzard bans 320,000 WarCraft III and Diablo II players
Blizzard appears to be cleaning house in preparation for its StarCraft II release as well as its Battle.net revamp. In a recent announcement on the service's forums, Blizzard rep Bashiok revealed that over 300,000 accounts were punished for violations of the terms of service for Warcraft III and Diablo II for using hacks and illegal third-party tools (which are essentially hacks). For those of you who have had past experience with Battle.net, these numbers probably don't surprise you. The network has had a long reputation of being fairly easy on people using hacks as Blizzard tends to save up over a long period of time in order to do a massive batch of bans at once. This means that those who are using hacks have a long period of time to abuse the system before anything is done about it. The hacks for some games were rampant enough that other players began using hacks that detect other hacks. Regardless of the reason behind using a hack, it is still against the terms of service and means if you get caught, you're out.
World of Warcraft Arena Tournament 2010 registration open
It's official: registration for the 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament is now open! Like last year's arena tournament, players will participate on regional tournament realms -- separate from live realms -- for a spot to play at the live events. The arena tournament will use the 3v3 arena format for teams, and the regular arena season on live servers will not be interrupted by this event. The cost of registration is one payment of $20 per eligible World of Warcraft account. For more information on eligibility and restrictions, check out the Arena Tournament rules page. This year's cash prizes, including prizes awarded at both the regional finals and world championship, amount to over $200,000. But even if you don't win the big prizes, there's still something out there for participants -- players who have participated in at least 50 rated tournament games on one character with the same team will be eligible for Murkimus, the gladiator murloc pet that players may remember from last year's tournament. Please note that as of patch 3.3.3, Murkimus is an account-wide pet that will apply to all WoW characters on your Battle.net account. Players who have a character in one of the top 1,000 teams and have participated in at least 100 rated tournament games during the last four weeks will also receive the Vanquisher title for their live characters level 71 and over. While the news may be good for players that missed out on last year's games, some have expressed disappointment that there was no new pet and title for this year. Zarhym addressed this in a post on the Arena Tournament forums: Zarhym While it would be cool to provide a new pet, we're not necessarily trying to encourage as many people as possible to pay $20 and sign up for this tournament ultimately because they want a new pet. It's a nice perk to encourage people, but we don't want the Arena Tournament to be a more complicated version of the Pet Store. We want players who are serious about competing to sign up for the tournament, not just a reason to take in more money through offering a new vanity pet with each new tournament. source So for those of you looking for a new pet -- sorry, looks like that's not in the cards this year. But for players who missed out on the pet last year and players who would like a chance at the cash that Blizzard is paying out, you can sign up for the fun and games on Blizzard's website.
WoW.com's April Fools Round-up
April Fools! Or at least it was yesterday. Some love the pranks, some find the pranks boring, some wish to see the pranks fall down a dark, dark hole, never to return, possibly to be eaten by a grue. Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, we've gathered a short list of Blizzard and WoW-related pranks across the web: Blizzard Pranks World of Warcraft EPEEN: New from Blizzard, the Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number system! WoW Armory Tuskarr Invasion: Folks checking out the armory may have noticed their characters transformed to tuskarr, their achievements reported as 'cheesed,' and a whole lot of gear ninjaed and summarily vendored Battle.net Matchmaking Service: Battle.net decides to play eHarmony and place lonely gamers with suitable partners Battle.net Neural Interface: New from the Blizzard Store, the Neural Interface promises a lifelike gaming experience Blizzard Mobile Games: Up for 2010 from Blizzard Mobile Games are Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder, and Queen's Quest! Diablo Gamer Blanket and Body Pillow: Wave goodbye to the cold as best as you can while swaddled in this Diablo 'gamer blanket!' Diablo Deckard Cain GPS System: Now you can listen to Deckard drone while you drive! Other WoW-related sites El's Extreme Anglin': El reports on the latest Cataclysm feature: Aquariums! MMO-Champion/Paragon/Premonition: MMO-Champion breaks the news that Paragon will be moving to US servers come Cataclysm and merging with the US Guild Premonition. Sponsored by AXE! Nihilum: Nihilum breaks some rules and brings us screens and video from the Cataclysm alpha Wowhead: Wowhead, er, TACOhead brings news of a new in-game item, the Hellfire Kickin' Taco Supreme! Tankspot: Tankspot announces their change to Farmspot Warcraft Pets: Breanni fills us in on some new non-combat pet... er... features coming out in Cataclysm World of Raids: World of Raids reports on the new Observation Deck and Spectate features coming in Cataclysm The Guild: The Guild proudly announces its new foray into the world of animation! Curse.com: Curse.com fills us in on Cataclysm -- exclusively available for the IPad WoW.com: And of course, there's us. Our day was filled with takeover after takeover, from Twilight to Muscle March to Saturn Six -- we've decided to return to WoW news. For now... Love them or hate them, at least they're done for the year, right? Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start believing what we see again. Did you laugh? Did you see a clever prank we missed? Or did you hide indoors all day and fervently wait for it to all be over? Let us know -- and check out the gallery below for screenshots from the various sites listed above! %Gallery-89602%
