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Less QQ More Pew Pew holding Tabard contest
Didn't win the Tabard of Flame in our recent contest? Worry not, Less QQ More Pew Pew has another chance at a great tabard for you -- all you've got to do is answer a few questions about the blog over there, and submit them by tomorrow evening. And then, oh yeah, you need to be the first person to email in all the answers (not likely), or be one of two random people who sent the answers in. That last part is the hard one.Just to help you out, we'll answer the first question for you: "Khagan." Cheating? Maybe, but we really want you to have that tabard. Good luck to everyone who enters, always nice to see members of the community holding fun contests like this to hand out some special items to the public.[via Mania]
Officers' Quarters: Allow me to rebut
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.There's only so much a blogger can take before he has to set the record straight! Two of my August columns -- and, oddly enough, even some columns I wrote back in January -- all managed to stir up a bit of controversy last month. Some of my readers made very good points, some were flat out wrong, and some grossly misunderstood my intent. I'd like to address them one by one. First up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed -- albeit vehemently! -- about my columns from early in the year about what to look for in a potential officer and what types of people to avoid promoting. Here's what she had to say about my criteria in a nutshell:Don't create strict rules or boxes for your leadership. Some of the best leadership is done outside of conventional thinking and wisdom. To quote myself; "If you do what everyone else is doing, you'll end up where everyone else is."
Site updates around WoW Insider
There have been a few tweaks and updates the past few days around here at WoW Insider. First of all, you've probably noticed that our comments system has been upgraded a bit, and now in addition to signing in with your standard Weblogs, Inc. name and password (more information about how to do that here), you can choose to sign in with with your AOL or AIM screenname. Unfortunately, there is no way to link your Weblogs, Inc. profile (which you can see by clicking on your name in any of your comments) with your AIM screenname, so you'll have to recreate your profile (or just keep using your old signin). But if you're new to the comments section, you can now use your AOL SN to leave a comment. This is a fairly new system, so there are still a few glitches floating around -- if you have a problem with anything, let us know, and we'll try to fix it and/or get back to you.Since we're talking about profiles, now might also be a good time to point out that you can change that default picture that goes with your profile. We've got lots of icons to choose from (and even more here), so if you're still using that boring gray question mark face (what are you, a low level questgiver?) spice it up a little bit by clicking on your profile page and putting a picture in there. The more colorful our comments section can get, the better.And finally, some good news for iPhone and iPod touch users -- while you can always see the full version of our site on those devices by using MobileSafari to go to wow.com, you can now see an iPhone-formatted page at i.wow.com. And if we may say so, our designers did a really great job on it. They continue to work hard to make our site better all the time, so stay tuned for more updates to WoW Insider and the other sites in the Joystiq network.
Fort Worth University Park Village Apple Store almost there
The picture above is not the actual Fort Worth University Park Apple Store, but we presume it'll look something like this when it opens later this month. Our Twitter buddy Jamie Phelps says that "the innards are finished" and the store should be open within the next week or so. If you were on our last Talkcast, you know how wildly interesting it is to see an Apple Store opening (our own Robert Palmer attended one just last week), so keep an eye on this one, Texans.Of course, we should mention that as incredibly awesome as our readers are, they are not always trustworthy when it comes to Apple Store news. Our good friend Ged Maheux kindly tipped us a little while ago about an Apple Store opening near him in Greensboro ... which then turned out to be a Williams Sonoma instead (the Apple Store is still opening there, but not until next year). We love our readers -- more than is socially accepted in some parts of the world, really -- but as always, take their Apple Store tips with a requisite grain of salt.
Ask WoW Insider: Defining mains and alts
There's a ton of asking going on around this site lately -- between "Ask a Lore Nerd" and "Ask a Beta Tester," you guys are asking more questions than a two-year old who just learned what "why" means. But this column, Ask WoW Insider, is the O.G. of Ask columns here on the site, and unlike all of the other Ask columns, we put the question back to you readers. Chippen of EU Doomhammer sent in this great question this week:We are having a discussion in our guild whether alts have priority on loot before guild members and we do have different views on this. Some say that an alt is an alt, and need to wait to be geared up, while others can't really see the problem. What is a main and what is an alt? I suppose a main is the...well...I don't know. The first character I created? Or is it the character I play the most? Or is it the character I want to play the most and also enjoying playing the most? When does an alt become a main, and is it possible to swap between the two?If you're asking me, I'd say it's definitely possible to switch mains (I've done it a few times) -- your main is currently the character that's getting the majority of your playtime, and the one where loot matters the most to you. Some guilds ask you to declare a main, so that they can make a clear distinction for passing out loot, while other guilds just have players switch alts depending only on what situations require what.So let's show up those other Ask columns and give this great, open-ended question out to you, our dear readers: what is a main and what is an alt? And what's the difference between the two?If you've got a question for our readers to be posted right here in the original Ask column, be sure to send it along to ask@wow.com. And there's lots more Ask WoW Insider, including this question on abusing the /roll, and how to make friends and influence raiders on a new server.
Ask WoW Insider: An early disappointment?
With all the Wrath news dropping, there's been a ton of hype around the next World of Warcraft expansion. Lots of players are very excited (including yours truly), but Charles S isn't so much. He actually stopped playing the game in March of this past year (before that, he raided as a Warlock), and he is using today's Ask WoW Insider column to ask you, our readers, if anyone else isn't so hot on what they've seen so far:I've been reading your site and the news about the expansion and my question is, is it too early to be disappointed in what I am seeing for this expansion?Unfortunately he doesn't expound much more beyond that, and I'd like to know what else he wants to see from the expansion -- we're going to get Death Knights, siege vehicles, and we're going to get to meet the Lich freakin' King, more than once. I don't know what more a Warcraft fan would want. But maybe you do -- think it's too early for Charles to be disappointed, or should he wait and see if Wrath will bring him back to the game?And if you have a question you want to ask our readers, feel free to send it along to ask@wow.com, and you might see it up here next week for everyone else to answer.Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Manaprincess reopens store, offers sale to WoW Insider readers
Our good friend and talented WoW crafter Manaprincess is back, and she's gone from Etsy to break out into her own World of Warcraft crafts store at manaprincess.com. She's got the usual Hearthstone key charms, as well as the WoW soaps up there, and a new section of "potion pendants" -- Health, Mana, or Rejuv potions to wear around your neck, just in case. And she says that all the items have been redesigned, so even things you've seen before may look a little different.And as a thank you to you WoW Insider readers for all your support, she's having a sale just for you: from now until August 31st, you can put in the code "wowinsider" without the quotes at the checkout screen to get 25% off your entire order.Manaprincess is definitely one of the best vendors in the crafting community, and it's great to see her up and running in a brand new store. If you're looking for some fun WoW-related gifts or crafts for yourself, her store is definitely one of the places to look.
Breakfast Topic: Addons requests and recommendations
Lileah on Livejournal was looking for some help with an addon the other day, and her request gave me an idea. For this morning's Breakfast Topic, we're going all out with the addon requests. If you've got a need for an addon (like custom timers, an addon for keeping track of food, or any other weird needs you might have), ask in the comments below, and if you're an addon expert, show off your expertise by letting the requester know if there's an addon that will fill their needs.And if there's isn't an addon that can do what they're asking, maybe this comments section will be the impetus for someone out there to create one of their own. Think we can find a need out there for an addon that doesn't yet exist? Of course, there are some things that addons can't do (choose targets or spells for you is a big one), but otherwise, consider this thread your clearinghouse for addon service requests.If you can't get an answer here, feel free to tip us, too -- we at WoW Insider always love finding out and writing about new addons. Whether you need help finding an addon that does what you want or you know of a great addon that could use some coverage, let us know and we'll be thrilled to take a look at it.
WoW Insider Weekly
Every week here at WoW Insider, our columnists cover all aspects of the World of Warcraft, from professions to Paladins, and everywhere in between. Here's ten of the most popular weekly columns from the past seven days. If you missed them the first time, don't miss them again. Officers' Quarters: Jerk message of the dayWhat do you do when someone you trust betrays your guild? Guildwatch: "Makes it sound like Teapot Dome up in here"Just in case you didn't get the reference, go learn about the Teapot Dome scandal, then come back and read about some corrupt guild drama. Hybrid Theory: Death Knight distressIt's great that we've got another tank and all, but has anyone thought about what this will do to the bears? Ready Check: Death and raid guildsThis was a week of guild breakups. Find out how to keep yours together. Answers from a lore nerd, part 1You got us -- this isn't really a weekly column, but it's so popular (and such a good read) that we might just make it one. Five more after the break.
Newsgator turns NetNewsWire free for everyone
Wow. I don't know who hadn't bought NetNewsWire yet, but if you haven't, consider your wait vindicated: most of Newsgator's products, including NNW, Newsgator Online, and FeedDemon (the Windows version of the popular RSS reader) have all gone free with version 3.1.Brent Simmons, NNW's creator, is reportedly happy about the change, to say the least, and Newsgator isn't any less thrilled themselves-- they say that not only are they excited to spread the love around to everyone, but that they'll also be using "attention data" collected from the software (which hopefully sounds more ominous than it is... right?) to "deliver a better experience for everyone." Not so happy might be the folks who've paid for the products in the past-- Newsgator is offering an automatic refund to anyone who purchased them in the past 30 days, but anyone before that just has to live with the fact that they paid $30 to use the software at the time (not that it was a bad deal back then anyway). Those who subscribed to the Newsgator Online service will run out their current subscriptions, and then continue on without charge.Version 3.1 of NetNewsWire features an updated interface with new toolbar icons, some performance and memory enhancements, and the ability to archive news items as HTML files, viewable in any browser. It is now available, for a completely free download, over on Newsgator's site.
Ask Massively: The beginning
Ask Massively is a brand new feature here on Massively-- it's your chance to take control of the little conversation we've got going on, and ask us MMO experts whatever you want. Want to know what MMO you should be playing, or why something in your favorite MMO is a little strange? Have a question about the site, or need an MMO standby explained? We're here to explain and elucidate the answers to all your queries, whatever they be.To ask a question of Ask Massively, you can either put it in the comments on this post (for next week's edition), or drop us a note on the tipline. And this column will run entirely on your questions, so please let us know if there's something you want to know, no matter how complicated or how silly.Click the link below to check out the first edition of Ask Massively! A warning: for the first edition, I cheated a little bit-- these are all questions from my friends. But next week, you'll have the chance to get a question of your own answered.
GuildCafe seeking nominations for Espresso Awards
Sam from Uberguilds sent us word of nominations opening up for GuildCafe's Espresso awards (they're the same company now, remember?). They're looking for your ideas on choosing the best of the year in a number of different categories, including everything from "best gaming blog" to "best user-interface mod" and "best player-written guide."Unfortunately, there's two problems here-- despite coming from GuildCafe, the awards don't seem to be aimed just at MMOs. They have a "player-created map" category, and unless they're talking about Second Life sims, that's not really MMO-centric. And they have strange qualifications for the fansite and gaming blog categories-- in my mind, getting fairly compensated for writing about games doesn't make your work meaningless. (Disclaimer: everyone who writes for Massively gets paid for their work by Weblogs, Inc, which is a division of AOL.)But hey, it's their awards, their rules. You readers are smart folks-- go put some good nominations in there and we'll see what GuildCafe comes up with.
Massively interviews Netdevil's Hermann Peterscheck, producer of Jumpgate Evolution
Netdevil is probably most known for Auto Assault, their (literally) car-driven futuristic MMO that was published by NCSoft but only lasted a year due to low player numbers, but before that, they created a game called Jumpgate, a very early 3D MMO that featured real-time space combat simulation inside a virtual world. Next year, they're headed back into the Jumpgate universe with Jumpgate Evolution, a completely new game based on the old one, and Massively got a chance to sit down with Hermann Peterscheck, lead producer of the upcoming game, to talk about what Netdevil is up to.The game is still in fairly early development, so there aren't a lot of specific gameplay details to go around-- Netdevil is still working on most of the core development plans. But we did hear from Peterscheck about how Netdevil plans to bounce back from Auto Assault, how they'll make JE different from that other big space MMO everyone's already playing, and we even got a chance to toss a few questions at him from you, our readers-- a huge thank you to reader Excelsior, who was able to get us questions from current Jumpgate players to ask here.The exclusive Massively interview with Jumpgate Evolution's lead producer starts right after the jump.%Gallery-9918%
RSS feed has errors, will be fixed soon
Just wanted to thank everyone who has sent in tips about the error messages on our RSS feed (which you can find right here, when it's working, which is most of the time). We are aware the feed is broken, we have forwarded every one of your notes on to our technical guys, and hopefully the error will be fixed soon.And while we're at it, I'll take this opportunity as well to remind everybody about our tips form, ready and willing to receive any news you have for us. If you've heard or seen something big about the World of Warcraft that we haven't posted yet, feel free to drop us a note. Unfortunately, due to the volume of tips coming in, we can't answer everything you send (although we do try to-- some folks have sent technical questions about the game to us, which we try to answer to the best of our ability, as well as on our Ask WoW Insider feature). But we do read each and every note sent through that form, and there's no better way to contact us with tips, feedback, errors like the RSS feed problem, or anything else you'd like to tell us.Thanks for reading and letting us know what you think. We appreciate it!
TUAW makes Jisho better, version 2.1.1 out now
The other week, we posted about Jisho, a Japanese to English translator for the Mac, and James, the developer, sent us another notice today that he's since updated to version 2.1.1. I can't find a changelist anywhere (and the site still says version 2.1) but James says there's a new intro splash screen, and an enhanced interface and accuracy. So if you grabbed it when we mentioned it last week, make sure to get the upgrade as well.He wants to personally thank you, the readers of TUAW, for helping him make his software better, and we must echo his sentiments-- you guys rock. We are nothing but proud to bring developers like James a great audience like you, thanks very much.
BlizzCon 2007: Thank you!
Robin, Elizabeth, Amanda, Barb, and I all had a great time at BlizzCon, and there's quite a few people that we should thank for helping us out there. First, a huge thanks to Blizzard for putting it all together, and especially to their CM staff and the PR department for setting us up with a press pass and getting us the access we needed. Another big thank you to all the guys at Xfire, who not only co-presented coverage with us, but did a terrific job of their own, and even let us in a few doors that we couldn't have opened otherwise. Upper Deck also was kind enough to sit down with us (and provide some information on their upcoming products that I'll be posting soon). We were excited to meet Ian Beckman, maker of Azerothian Supervillians, as well as the two guys who run WoW Drama, a blog about serious business in WoW. And Kevin Kelly from Joystiq joined us for most of the convention, and helped out immensely with his experience and knowhow. Back here at the ranch, we have to thank our homebound bloggers for filling in the blanks of our coverage, and we have to give a nod to our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion, who was not only instrumental in getting some of the leaks out (and getting Frank Pierce angry at us), but also hooked us up with a few links and said some very nice things about our coverage. The guys at WoW Radio were also seen almost nonstop at BlizzCon, and gave us a nice nod as well.And last but farthest from least, we have to thank you, our readers, who not only came up and said hi, hello, and thank you to us at both the WoW Insider meetup on Thursday (the video above is a short sweep of the crowd there at the Lost Bar, right before our trivia contest), but also on the floor as well. Back here on the site, you read your way through our 99 posts over the weekend, gave us record numbers of page views, and helped us out with comments, questions, and tons of support. Thanks very much for everything-- we really, really appreciate it.We're far from done (we've got more BlizzCon news to report on, and of course we need to get around to the discussion of whether we really want siege weapons or not), but now that the event itself is over, we just wanted to take a second and say thanks. So thank you.
A whole herd of Tauren, fighting an instance of bosses
I love this-- reader David B sends us news that he was chatting with this Alliance guildies about what to call a group of Horde ("Hordies," of course, but read on), and they eventually came up with a list of collective nouns for the various player groups of Azeroth.You know what collective nouns are-- like a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees. I've reprinted David's list below the jump, and I have to say, some of it is genius: "a blush of Blood Elves," "a den of rogues," and a "congregation of priests" are definitely my favorites. But there is some room for improvement-- "an annoyance of gnomes" is funny, but couldn't there be a better word for that? Maybe a "short stack"?And there have got to be better things to call a group of Alliance and a group of Horde, so post your own ideas in the comments below. I have to say, though, "a murder of Murlocs" is just about perfect. Don't touch that one.
Link inked
What better way to get gamer kudos than having your favourite character inked into your arm forever? Reader Mike Corbett sent us this fantastic Link tattoo, done by his wife. It's a great likeness of Zelda's hero.How about you, fanboy readers? How do you show your devotion to gaming? Let us know, and send us pictures![Thanks, Mike!]
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.
Reminder: send us your tips!
We TUAW bloggers use a variety of methods and resources to track down the news, tips, tricks and other forms of Mac interestingness we post, and among the most important of them are the tips from readers like you. However, we've noticed an increase in questions in post comments on how to send us tips, so we thought it might be a good time to post a reminder.Our tips form is linked at the bottom of our category list (pictured here, though yes: it's tiny and hard to find. Rest assured, we're working on it), and its URL is located in the same place as virtually any other blog in the Weblogs, Inc. network: tuaw.com/tips gets you to our tips form, while DVguru.com/tips will let you drop our sister blog on all things digital video a line as well.So if you've found a hot piece of news, a killer tip or someone who turned their PowerMac into a mailbox, be sure to send it our way, and your name just might get emblazoned in the TUAW archives with our post.
