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Curse Client v4 now in open beta
Curse has recently released version 4 of their addon client to open beta. This is a major overhaul from their current client both in looks and functionality. It adds features such as change logs, settings backup, addon package creation, and a healthy dose of added security. While it still does have some features only available to premium users, it is much less nagging about the process than their v3 client is known to be. Adamar (PC version) and Kaelten (Mac version as well as the addon OneBag) are the developers behind this new version and have been working with ckknight to help integrate some of its features into WoWAce.com and CurseForge addon development sites (both of which are owned by Curse Gaming). This allows players to report bugs via the new client and have them show up as support tickets in the addon sites for the developers to track and work with. We've put together a couple quick galleries of what both the Mac (thanks Mike!) and PC versions of the new client look like as well as delving into some of the cool new features that are available with premium membership. %Gallery-77063% %Gallery-77062%
Curse previews WSVG on CBS
Curse has posted a reminder that the WSVG is bringing WoW Arena combat to CBS one week from Sunday, July 29th, at noon. They've even got a video up from CBS promoting not only the WoW tournament, but also Fight Night 3 and even Guitar Hero. If you never thought a Guitar Hero tournament would ever appear on network television, you can join the club-- the line starts right next to me.Right now, as Curse says, Team Pandemic is the team to watch in Arena matchups, but word is that Insurrection and a couple of other teams will make a showing as well. Supposedly, only 3v3 will be shown, which is a little strange because Blizzard seems to be promoting 5v5 as the standard for Arena play (you actually gain more points in game for winning at 5v5), but maybe CBS figured having ten players in one match would be a little too confusing. Of course the big question will be how it's presented-- will CBS be able to make a so far practically unwatchable event interesting enough to pull in a larger audience? Find out on July 29th.
AddOn Spotlight: WoW UI Updater
Here's something I've been looking for for a long time! It's not an addon itself, but it does make the management and upkeep of your addons a lot simpler. Cairnehoof of Dethecus (US) sent this in to Mike, who kindly sent it my way: I read your article on wowinsider (big fan btw) about the addon issue in the upcoming patch. I have come across an great application for windows that updates your addons from all the popular sites. Maybe you could share it on the site. I know many people would love it. It's alot better than the one offered on ui.worldofwar.net because it not just download from one site. It is maintained on sourceforge.net and does not contain any malicious code. (I scanned with 3 different anti-virus programs and a anti-spyware one) heres the link if you want to take a look: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wuu So, armed with that information, I set off to explore WUU.
Transcripts from the Xfire Debate with WoW Insider
I want to make sure and thank all the WoW Insider readers who showed up to the Xfire Debate on Wednesday night-- I know I heard from a lot of people, I've got a lot of new people on my Xfire friends list, and I definitely heard a few good shoutouts. Thanks for participating-- I think it went really well.Xfire has posted transcripts of the chat: This is the main transcript, which I participated in along with reps from World of Raids, Taverncast, and Curse Gaming-- the whole thing was moderated by Gary Whitta, a former PC Gamer editor-in-chief (who, I'm told, I tussled with during the debate, but it was all in good fun). In addition, Xfire has posted the "Open Debate" transcript, which actually has a lot more to read through, and is just as interesting, if not moreso, than the "Main Floor"-- a lot of people had a lot of good opinions about the Burning Crusade, the new instances and races, and plans for the future of Blizzard's game (player housing is apparently wanted by many).Again, if you came by to see it, thanks for your support, and a big thanks to Xfire for hosting the whole thing (and especially to Xfire's Matt Gilman for setting everything up). Their Debate Club is supposed to be a regular feature, so while it'll probably be a while before they cover WoW again, it's definitely worth it to check back in with them to see what's coming up next.
First 60 Draenei Shaman, Blood Elf Paladins seen ingame
Curse Gaming is reporting that Slops of Disposable Heroes on Aggramar-A has hit 60 with an Alliance Shaman. As far as they know (and I know), that's not only the first 60 Draenei seen in the game, it's also the first 60 Alliance Shammy in the game (see Update). Congrats! Now you'll know, Alliance, just how useful we Shammies are (yep, I play an Orc resto Shammy as my main).Slops did it with an amazing time of 3 days and 9 hours, which is doubly amazing, because as far as I know, the fastest time to 60 for any class I know of was just over 4 days (that was a few patches ago, though, and Shaman do rock). If someone hasn't already hit 60 (or even 70) with a Blood Elf Paladin yet, we'll probably see it here in a few days. In fact, if you know of one, drop us a note in the comments or over at "Contact Us" in the sidebar.Meanwhile, congrats to Slops for being one of the first Shaman to benefit from the crack cocaine that is a Pally's Judgement of Wisdom-- I won't lie, we spend mana like it's going out of style, and we can't wait to get a refill. Sure, I might not like them much, but I can't wait to share spells with the enemy in raids.Update: Well that didn't take long-- commenter Stephen says Yoshie of Relentless on Maelstrom EU hit 60 on Tuesday afternoon. Technically we don't know when Slops hit, but there's also been reports of a 60 Blood Elf Paladin sighting as well. There's no question Slops' time was fast, but unless Blizzard wants to let us know for sure, we might never know exactly who the first endgame Alliance Shaman was.
Tigole doesn't deny the idea of player housing
The good guys over at Curse Gaming have pointed to a Jeff Kaplan interview at MTV.com, in which he talks about comparisons to Second Life, how the Sword of 1,000 Truths didn't make it to the expansion, and the idea of player housing!They caught him on the phone at the BC Launch at Universal CityWalk in LA (where, strangely enough, he's being asked to sign things as "Tigole"), and it seems as though the interviewer doesn't quite have a grasp on online gaming-- Kaplan is asked how Second Life compares to WoW, and as he says, while Second Life is great, it's not really a competitor to what Blizzard has built. There's a huge difference between Blizzard-created content, and the user-created stuff. He also namechecks the Starcraft and Diablo universes (not the first time we've heard those hinted at).But the most interesting part of the article is what Kaplan says about player housing: "I think housing can take 'World of Warcraft' to the next level." That's definitely not a "no" to the idea, and frankly it's much more credit than I ever thought Blizzard would give to creating an in-game customizable area for players. While he does say it's an idea they had in the beginning (the huge inaccessible instance in Stormwind was rumored to be a player housing area at one time), Kaplan also confirms that if they're going ahead with it at all, they won't release anything until they have a "Blizzard-quality feature." So while there's no way we can expect it in the next patch (or even the next expansion), it's very interesting news that the gears appear to be turning over at Blue HQ about player housing.
WoW Insider coming to Xfire on January 31st
Xfire is a gaming chat program (like Steam or Xbox Live, they allow you to create friends lists and join your friends in games online, but unlike those two they also allow you to IM those friends, either in or out of game), and they're working lately on building a community around the program through a series of online chats. They recently talked with PVP creator Scott Kurtz, this week they're chatting with MC Frontalot, and at the end of the month, they're dipping all the way down to the bottom of the barrel, and chatting with-- well, me.They're starting a series of "debates" on the channel (called the Xfire Debate Club: The Two-Handed Sword), and on the 31st at 7pm EST, the very first subject is World of Warcraft. I'm going to be chatting live on there, along with representatives from Curse, World of Raids, and TavernCast. What exactly we're talking about hasn't yet been revealed to me, but I'm sure the Burning Crusade will take the spotlight (and of course I'm planning to at least sneak a few snide comments in about how Horde is better than Alliance). In fact, if you've got something you want me to try and bring up, feel free to say something in the comments here, and I'll do my best to squeeze it in.And please come check out the debate live-- you can download Xfire right here, then just fire it up January 31st at 7pm EST. And if you want to join in on the debate and ask us questions (as well as future debates, I believe), just drop an email to "xfirecontests@xfire.com" with the subject "Xfire Debate Club" and the username you create on Xfire.But even if you don't have questions to ask, please do come and watch the chat-- I'm interested to see what the guys from Curse, WoR, and TavernCast have to say, and I'm very interested to see what Xfire users have to ask about the World of Warcraft. Should be fun.
Scrambling for new mods on raid night
Hindsight is 20/20, so if you're telling me it was a bad idea to plan an MC raid the night after the 2.0.1 patch, I now see that you were probably right. My guild is getting ready to raid tonight, and not only are we now contending with rolling restarts (they're hitting all realms to "hotfix" a critical bug), but we're scrambling to get our interfaces back to the point where we can actually use them.The problem, however, is that as of right now, Curse Gaming's website is spotty at best-- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it works, their 2.0 page is the place to go for the new addons, so that's probably the first place you can stop. CTRaid, fortunately, is hosted elsewhere, and they had their 2.0 release ready to go (there was a quick fix last night, but the current version works swimmingly). CastParty is hosted over at Sourceforge, so while you can download their 4.3 version, I put it in, and it is incompatible with WoW 2.0 (bummer). And for the worst news of all: Auctioneer's authors are busy with schoolwork, and so their new versions won't be coming out for... another two weeks.Unfortunately, with Benecast, CastParty and redHeart out of the 2.0.1 mix, I haven't found a clickheal mod that works. That's what we suspected when we first mentioned the addon apocalypse, but does this mean clickhealing is gone forever? Will we all have to face the music and live without the mods we've come to know and love? For the time being, seems so. If you've found an updated version of a mod you use, or are even an author of an updated mod, feel free to post in the comments and let us know where to go. Our servers' back up-- with or without mods, Domo's going down.Update: MC didn't work as planned. With new talents, messed up mods and bugged interfaces, we threw in the towel early. One the mages were really missing is Decursive. There is supposed to be an updated version out, but not confirmed if it works or not-- anyone try it?Update2: More mod updates.
Curse Gaming site revamp
The new patch is coming this Tuesday to a realm near you, and when you run off to find updated versions of your latest addons, you may be in for a surprise -- because favorite addon site Curse Gaming has undergone a complete redesign. (If you're trying to find the addon section of the site from the main page, it's a big purple button on the right.) Their addons section looks quite a bit different and no longer sorts addons by familiar categories -- instead, there appears to be one giant list of addons, which is searchable by labels attached to the addon. For better or for worse, the new layout is going to take some getting used to -- and I can only again encourage everyone to go and download addon updates in advance of Tuesday's patch!
