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The Daily Quest: Podcasts galore
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. HolyPaladin.net takes a good look at the balance between WoW and life and how to find it. The Rawrcast spoke with Curse's ckknight on the WoW Matrix controversy, Curse's premium client, and much more this weekend. Give it a listen! The Hearthstone Tavern has put out the first edition of their brand new World of Warcraft podcast focusing on RP and lore. This week they discuss Arthas: Rise of the Lich King and how it can bolster your own roleplay. The Twisted Nether Blogcast has posted episode number 44, this time with Dezdemone from Will Tank For Healz. Can't afford to go to BlizzCon? No worries, Spooncraft's got your backs. Well, the back of one of you. Just one back. They're running a contest to design a Spooncraft t-shirt, and the lucky Grand Prize winner gets a BlizzCon ticket, a free hotel stay, and $500 towards their airfare. Pretty sweet? Yeah, pretty sweet. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
The best of WoW Insider: May 5-12, 2009
Welcome back to the Wacky World of Warcraft, where the men are men, the women are usually dragons of some kind, and the average faction leader is probably being mad with some kind of ill-gotten power. Confused? Wondering why that ugly-looking orc is approaching you with sword drawn? Worry not, WoW Insider is your all-encompassing guide to Azeroth. Just please keep your arms and legs inside the tram at all times -- you don't want to hear what happened to our friend Wirt. News WoW Insider interviews Tom Chilton on Patch 3.1 and beyondWe talk to the game's lead designer on the latest updates, and what's coming up next. Star Trek references in the World of WarcraftWe've all (well, most of us -- ahem, Alex and Dan) seen Star Trek and loved it, so we compiled this little list of sightings in game. WoWMatrix responds to Curse and WoW InterfaceThere was a kerfluffle in the addon scene lately, and popular addon updater WoWMatrix finally responds. BlizzCon tickets on sale May 16thBlizzard's convention is returning to the Anaheim Convention Center, and it'll cost you $125 and some time in line to go. Flying in old world AzerothBlizzard has long said it wouldn't be possible to allow flying mounts in the original game world. And here's why. Features Disappointment the patch 3.1 game worldNot everything is hunky dory after the latest update -- at least one of our bloggers is a bit bored. Officers' Quarters: FragmentationOur column for guild officers takes a look at who should get the game's newest legendary. The OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero strikes backHow to do one of the biggest achievements in the game. WoW, Casually: Guide to the latest featuresNot every WoW player is a hardened veteran -- for the newer folks, there's WoW, Casually. Arcane Brilliance: PvPing as a Fire Mage after patch 3.1What's new in the world of Mages? Our Mage blogger Christian Belt tells you.
MMOUI Minion is coming
With all this talk about the Curse client and WoWMatrix, it's easy to forget that another major player is entering the scene soon (™): MMOUI Minion, from the people at WoWInterface. According to the FAQ for the forthcoming client, the target date for open beta testing is May 17, 10 days from today. Here are some salient points about Minion: Will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. Has an option to auto-update, set to "off" by default. There will be a premium version, but the only difference will be that premium users don't see ads. In contrast to the Curse client, the non-premium version of Minion is not crippled, and will have an update-all button and full download speed. If an author enables donation requests, they will show up in the updater.
WoWMatrix responds to Curse and WoW Interface
I thought the whole Curse and WoW Interface vs WoWMatrix scuffle was over, but the people at WoWMatrix have just fired back an "FAQ" giving their side of the story. I put FAQ in quotes because I'm not sure these are frequently asked questions so much as questions Matrix frequently wants to answer, but that's OK. I like the format. Here is the situation as they put it: The Matrix people are respecting Curse/WI's demands that they quit using Curse/WI bandwidth, so as of now you can only get addons through WM that are hosted on the WM servers. They are hosting addons on their servers that the authors asked to be hosted there, or that are distributed under a free license (such as the GPL) that allows such re-hosting.
The best of WoW Insider: April 14-21, 2009
Patch 3.1 has been out for a week now in the World of Warcraft (in fact, patch 3.1.1 is coming out today), and players have tons to do -- we're all raiding Ulduar, playing around with dual specs, and leveling up through the Argent Tournament to become Champions of our own factions. In fact, there's a lot of new stuff in World of Warcraft, so if it ever gets overwhelming, worry not -- Joystiq's WoW Insider has you covered. Here's our most popular posts in the past week. News WoW Insider's Guide to the Argent TournamentIt's joustin' time in the World of Warcraft. Here's what you need to know. WoW Insider's Patch 3.1 FAQFrequently asked questions about last week's patch, answered just for you. Ghostcrawler on the mechanics behind Armor PenetrationOne of the game's devs talks about one of the tougher damage dealing mechanics to figure out. First day for Champions on the Argent TournamentThe very first class of Champions arises. Curse, WoW Interface band together to block WoWMatrixA small shakeup in the addon world leaves a few players hanging right around patch day. Features Wrath 101: Emalon the Storm WatcherThere's a new boss in the Wintergrasp Vault, and here's a quick guide to taking him down. The Queue: Service with a smileYou ask, we answer. That's how it works. How to get the Turtle MountWant to get your hands on the brand new aquatic mount? Here's a few tips. How to activate Ulduar's hard modesSure, anybody can raid Ulduar. But can you do it on hard mode? Lichborne: Top Death Knight DPS builds and patch 3.1With dual specs out, everybody wants to know which builds are best. Our Death Knight column breaks down which talent points to look for in patch 3.1.
Curse, WoW Interface band together to block WoWMatrix
WoWMatrix is a program of dubious morality. It sucks down bandwidth from sites like Curse and WoWInterface like crazy, and displays its own ads while doing so. It does, however, work like a charm. So it is with mixed feelings that I report that Curse and WoW Interface have gotten their heads together and figured out a way to keep WoWMatrix from accessing their files, which means WoWMatrix is of little use going forward. The idea is that we will now use the official tools provided by those sites: Curse Client from Curse, and an updater that is still in the works for WoW Interface. Unfortunately, the Curse Client for Mac is a work of pure evil uses a lot of obtrusive and non-standard interface elements, as well as being pretty unstable, so I'm not a huge fan of it; I'm not sure how the Windows version stacks up. It also didn't find about half of my addons, including some that I know are on the Curse site, like ClearFont2. Furthermore, the WoW Interface updater, the only other game in town as far as I can see, appears to have been in limbo for quite some time. So although I recognize that WoWMatrix was putting a drain on the sites, I'm sad that there is no longer a pleasant way for me to update all of my addons, and at best (when the WI updater is released) I'll need to run two separate programs to do the work that WoWMatrix used to do on its own. But if that's what had to happen for Curse and WI to keep their doors open, that's what had to happen.
MMOS X: Managing WoW AddOns
They say acceptance is the first part of recovery, so I'm going just going to say it: I have an AddOn problem in World of Warcraft. My reliance on a completely nonstandard UI is so severe, when I needed a screenshot of a group running an instance with the default UI, I had to ask the rest of the WoW Insider staff if anyone had one, since there was zero chance I was stepping into an instance without my "set up the way I like it, thank you very much" UI.Managing these AddOns is a nightmare. Half the time I've forgotten what AddOns I have even installed (good thing I use an online backup -- Mozy -- to back them up or I'd be in deep doo-doo if I was forced to do a rebuild). If you're half as lazy as I am (which is pretty damn lazy) , you'll frequently put off, "wait till next log on", or downright blow off updating your AddOns. As the Despair.com poster says, "Hard work may pay off later, but procrastination pays off now." Which in game terms means, "Don't fix what isn't broken." Or something. That's where add-on management tools like WoWMatrix and MacAceUpdater save me time and aggravation. I need to throw the disclaimer out there that this isn't really a review of these utilities. However, it'll be pretty obvious which one I prefer. And to keep the full disclosure bus rolling, I have not tested these after Patch 2.4.3 was released since I had most of this column written before it hit.
