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WoW Insider Show live today at 3:30pm Eastern
Our podcast is live on the virtual air today at 3:30pm Eastern (8:30pm GMT) over on Ustream, and it's an all-star show for sure. We'll have Michael "Belfaire" Sacco, Matthew W. Rossi, and Adam Holisky all on the show with us, so I don't expect to have to say anything. Maybe I'll just shout out something like "patch 3.3" and see what evolves from there. But Turpster and I will still be on, and if we can corral these guys, we'll be talking about how big a change the Dungeon Finder really is, Corehound Pups in the mail for Authenticator users, and this patch in general. Should be quite a show. And we'll be answering your emails -- if you have a question for any of us, feel free to send it along to theshow@wow.com. And of course we'll be doing the usual preshow and aftershow, so if you plan to turn up live after the break (or listen via the Ustream app on the iPhone), make sure to stick around for a little bit afterwards and we'll be chatting with you directly. See you this afternoon!
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon at 3:30pm Eastern
Our podcast (which, if you haven't heard, is award-nominated now -- please give us your vote every day until the end of November) returns to the series of tubes this afternoon on Ustream, and the great Michael "Belfaire" Sacco is coming along with it. Turpster, Sacco and I will chat about night elf mohawks, and what's up with the patch 3.3 PTR (including how to get the gear and some axe that people might like) and the next expansion. And as usual we'll chat live with the chat channel, answer your emails, and just generally have a good time talking about the World of Warcraft. The show kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern/ 8:30pm GMT on our Ustream page, or we've also embedded a feed in the second half of this post, so you can just go there. If you're planning to be out and about, you can also listen to the show on your iPhone or iPod touch (assuming you've got the Internet connection required to do so). And of course even if you can't make it to the live recording, we'll have the show on the feed next Monday as we usually do -- you'll miss the aftershow, but such, as they say, is life. Hopefully we'll see you today.
The Queue: rm -fR "World of Warcraft" && echo "Oops!"
Welcome back to The Queue, Wow.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Many thanks to Sacco for covering The Queue last Friday. For some odd reason he decided to start drawing this weekend, and you can see one of his drawings above. For the other image you'll have to check out our Twitter page (it wasn't done when today's edition of The Queue was written).If you're wondering about the title, we're not going to talk about the mistake Adam made over the weekend when he was setting up WoW on his fresh dual-boot linux install. It's just really not worth going over how he managed to delete his WoW directory that has lasted him since pre-BC. Not at all.Remember that The Queue is here to answer your questions, and you can either leave them in a comment in this article or contact us with them. So without further ado...Swampsquach asked... "When you do the repeatable Frenzyheart/Oracle quest in Sholazar Basin, does it have any effect on the current rep you have with either one? For example, if I get revered with the Oracle's and then do that quest but pick Oracle's again, is that just free gold? Or does it set your rep back to honored?"
Important Poll: Who has the best 'stache?
Listen up, this is very important stuff here.When male Draenei logged on last night, they were greeted with some serious facial hair. No one is sure exactly what's happened, and the only blue response is a reply asking for folks to post if they're having the issue.Now what I have to say next is the important part.Who has the best 'stache pictured above?To the left we have the timeless hunk of man meat Burt Reynolds, in the middle we have Virtual Sacco, and on the right sits the anchorman himself, Ron Burgundy. Vote and be heard! The results of the poll will matter more than you could ever know... %Poll-29162%
WoW Insider Show live worldwide this afternoon
Yes, our show is going intercontinental yet again today -- on one side of the world, we'll have the inimitable Turpster chatting with us from England, and on the other, Zach Yonzon will be calling in from his home in the Philippines. We've tried to tackle some Paladin news lately, and we haven't done it very well, so Zach will help us get a grip on what's up with you plate healers lately. And from the US, Michael Sacco (a.k.a. Belfaire) will be on with us as well.Should be a great show. We'll go live at 3:30 EST over on the Ustream page (and there's an embedded stream right after the break here), and we'll talk about the plans for Ulduar, the imminent PTR, vehicular combat and why some people dislike it so much, and we may even fit in a little bit of discussion about pets tanking and why Blizzard says no. And we'll answer your emails and questions -- you can talk to us in the live chat if you're around for the show (and the preshow and the aftershow), or you can always email us at theshow@wow.com.We'll see you this afternoon!
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon at 3:30pm EST
Today on the show, we're gonna have a good ol' podcastin' time. Michael Sacco, formerly known as "Belfaire," is returning to the show, as is Turpster, and we'll be talking all about patch 3.1 and all of the changes we heard about this week (there's lots of them, if you haven't been paying attention), specifically what we've been told about mana regeneration and what's up with all of the classes (no ammo?!?). We'll also chat about the Darkmoon cards, and about playing the Horde and why so many people are into it.Should be fun -- come visit us on the Ustream page this afternoon at 3:30pm Eastern (or just head right below the cut of this post -- I've embedded the stream below), and be ready to chat some Warcraft with us (both during the show and the usual aftershow). Don't forget that you can email us as well -- the address is theshow@wow.com, so hit us up if you've got a comment or question.We'll see you this afternoon at 3:30pm Eastern.
New mousecloning software lets you mouse multiple screens [Updated]
Update: Despite evidence that Blizzard was okay with this app, on the Customer Service forums, Malkorix tells users he "strongly advises shying away from this program." Use it at your own risk, folks. Update II: The folks behind MouseCloner have informed us that while the app did originally use "prerecorded x/y coordinates" (which is what Malkorix found a problem with), they have specifically recoded the app to use only mouse position, in order to stay away from questions about scripting. To our (and their) best knowledge, the app is safe to use, but as always, you use third-party programs with your client at your own risk. You can find more information and ask more questions on the Mousecloner forums. Original Post: Now here's a subject with my name written all over it. Those of you who followed my exploits over on the official forums will likely remember my responses to multiboxing questions with a nice, clear stance on what Blizzard does and doesn't support with regard to multiboxing tools. It was good for the multiboxing community -- and bad for anti-multiboxing trolls -- to have readily-available blue responses to those kinds of important questions. Even Tom Chilton (a.k.a Kalgan) has come out in support of the practice. For those of you unfamiliar with it, multiboxing is the act of playing more than one WoW account/client at the same time. There have historically been a number of programs used by multiboxers that help with client-switching or keybinding to make controlling two or more accounts easy.
WoW Insider Show Episode 73: Yes, Virginia, there is a Martin Thunder
Great show on the podcast this past weekend, if I may say so myself. We started off with a kickass intro from David over at Trekcast.com, and I think it set the tone well: we had Michael Sacco (a.k.a. onetime Blizzard GM Belfaire) on the show, and he revealed some great stories about what it's like to be on the other end of Blizzard's ticket system. Turpster was on with his wacky self as usual (along with some excellent Warrior insight), and we all talked about the most embarassing thing we've done in game, and how to know when you're ready to head off into Heroics, as well as the Death Knight changes coming up in the next patch.If you want to send us an intro or anything else, the address is theshow AT wow.com. You can listen to last weekend's show using the links below, and if you'd like to hear us live, definitely make plans to listen in next weekend: we record the show live every Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern / 20:30 GMT. Oh, and don't forget to become a fan of our site on Facebook -- we're almost 3/4 of the way to our goal of 4,000 fans, and if we can reach that goal, Turpster's promised us a brand new, exclusive song. Tell your friends!Enjoy the show and have a great week. And if you're wondering who Martin Thunder is, here you go.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon
Our podcast is back for another day today, and it's going to be a good one. We're welcoming to the airwaves the first ex-Blizzard employee we've ever had. Michael Sacco, aka Belfaire, aka The Talbuk, is going to be live on our show, and we'll talk to him about what it was like to be an actual Blue. Turpster will be on as well (and you know it's a good time when he's around), and we'll be chatting about whether Heirloom items are worth the purchase, the most embarassing things we've all done in Azeroth, how to dive into Heroics right around when you hit level 80, and we'll try to conquer some of the Death Knight changes in the upcoming patch.And as usual we'll answer your emails and just generally have a great time. The show starts at 3:30pm Eastern, 8:30 GMT over on Ustream or right here (we've put an embed of the feed right after the break, so you can listen right from our site). Remember, if you're in the chat and you want to change your name, use "/nick name" (where name is the name you want), and if the feed cuts out for any reason, you can probably refresh the page and it'll come back up. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and please don't feed the Turpster, his trainers give him plenty to eat as it is.See you at 3:30 Eastern! Enjoy the show!
Account security mythbusting
So, you might have noticed the increased number of warnings and advice from Blizzard regarding account security lately. They've even popped up in the game itself, as a server message when you first log in. Needless to say, this has caused no dearth of consternation in the WoW community (read: people be trippin'). So, why the sudden notices? Has something changed? Has Blizzard lost their footing in the war against hackers and gold farmers? Is Blizzard in cahoots with them? What's this itchy pentagram-shaped rash I've developed?Now, there's a lot I can't talk about regarding this stuff, and certainly not for any sinister reason. It's a selfish reason, though, that being that I really like not getting sued. I can, however, use my experience and knowledge to bust or confirm some common account security myths. Ready? I'm a trained professional. Don't try this at home!
[1. Local]: He broke out the mad baby pic
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one!) and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk. The great Hunter nerf of 2008We knew this week was off to a rousing start when our mailbox began filling up with "ZOMG!!11! Hunter nerf!!1!" e-mails. Just how big a nerf it was began to sink in when Adam Holisky capped his post on the topic with the image of a face that has launched a thousand QQs. "Oh boy, you guys broke out the mad baby pic!" exclaimed InsaneAssault. "This is serious business. Haven't seen that guy since the honor carryover article." Even those who weren't familiar with Mad Baby realized the gravity of his presence. "Where is the mad baby picture from originally? Does anyone know what happened to that kid?" wondered Frijona. Who nerfed that poor Mad Baby? Readers suggested a few theories – but we'll leave it to you to dig those theories out of the comments for yourself.
Mount race restrictions lifted, Tauren rejoice
As the newest member of the WoW Insider team, I thought it'd be a good idea to introduce myself before diving right into news, news, news. We might not be total strangers, though! I was the blue poster formerly known as Belfaire (the talbuk). A good number of you may be familiar with my work already, and may have even wondered where I'd gone off to in the past two months. Now you know!That's right--I've given up the animated avatar and moved on to greener pastures. I'm still the same incorrigible talbuk you knew, though, and my unique experiences make me a real...WoW insider.With the obligatory terrible puns out of the way, let's talk shop, yeah?
WoW Insider Interview: Blizzard speaks about Authenticator security
About a month and a half ago, we reported on the story of a player who had apparently gotten their account hacked while they were using the new Blizzard Authenticator key, and it raised a lot of questions in players' minds about the only hardware Blizzard's ever made: just what does the Authenticator do to protect players' accounts? Have Authenticators actually prevented accounts from being hacked? And what would it take to, through social engineering or other methods, actually remove an Authenticator from an account?At the time we published that first story (which was later disputed by a customer support representative), Blizzard contacted us here at WoW Insider, offering to clear up players' concerns about the new keys. We quickly submitted to them a few questions pulled from our own writers and a few submitted by readers, and they've now returned the answers to us -- you can find Blizzard's answers to our questions about the Authenticator after the break. Thanks to Blizzard for answering our questions about how these keys work, and clarifying some of the issues around their security.
Authenticator back in stock in September
There's always enough interest in the Blizzard Authenticator that we wanted to make sure our readership (who is clearly smarter than the average bear) is aware that it's back in stock. There's been a little rockiness, as Daniel put it, and there's sometimes a little question whether it's actually available. This time looks to be for real, and with an added benefit -- the Authenticator is now available in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Latin America. The Authenticator has had some history behind it already. It's an obvious preventive against the many and varied keyloggers. There's nothing worse than getting your account hacked, since it often puts both you and your Guild in danger of getting robbed blind. There was an issue reported a while back about someone getting hacked even though they were using the Authenticator, though Belfaire confirmed that the Authenticator wasn't actually removed. Also, as I mentioned, there've been some oddities in whether it's in stock and if the order process goes smoothly. Trying to place an order for the Authenticator today, one of your intrepid Insider reporters saw style-sheet errors similar to the time of Failoc, the Fail Murloc. Still, it's an added level of protection for you and your account. If you're at all worried about the security of your WoW account, you should see about picking one up.
Chilton content to endorse multi-boxing
Belfaire already explained previously that Blizzard's okay with the idea of multi-boxing, whether it's for PvE use or even to compete in the Arena. In the same Eurogamer interview that discusses the new phasing technology, Tom Chilton reinforces that Blizzard is "content to endorse multi-boxing to some reasonable degree." Eurogamer was focused on the possible abuses of Blizzard's Recruit-a-Friend program, and the speed with which players can create and level new accounts. Chilton says that if someone wants to drop the bucks on a new account -- not only the retail fees, but also the subscription cost -- then Blizzard's okay with that. J. Allen Brack immediately brings the discussion back to a point I've previously made -- the idea is really to help players get ready for the new expansion. You can bring in a friend or family, and get them to a level where they can play with other friends very quickly. They want new players to be able to "roll a Death Knight and be ready to go." Now, Chilton did say the endorsement only goes to a "reasonable degree." I suspect if we see vast abuse of multi-boxing in multiple areas of play, the endorsement might quickly be repealed or re-focused. But, for now at least, Chilton has confirmed Belfaire's statement -- Blizzard's okay with multi-boxing.
Where exactly are those Dell/BlizzCon/WWI keys again?
This one's been flying under our radar for a while, but I'm not sure why -- I happen to be one of the affected. Still, while everyone was spending the past few days worrying about tickets for this year's BlizzCon, a whole other set of folks were worrying about last year's BlizzCon. Specifically, the beta keys they received there. Originally, they were all told by Belfaire that there was going to be a wave of invites after August 1st that included people who'd recieved beta keys from Dell, or for attending BlizzCon '07 or this year's WWI. But now we're almost two weeks past that date, and we (I was one of the folks who entered a key from BlizzCon '07) haven't seen any beta keys at all yet.Last Thursday, about a week ago, Belfaire acknowledged there was a problem on the forums, and asked people to enter their names if they'd input their beta keys and hadn't recieved a beta email (here's the BlizzCon thread, and here's the Dell thread). But there's been no answer since then, and I certainly haven't recieved a key at all. In fact, we've heard from people who got invited to the beta through the random opt-ins, which means these keys we paid for haven't done thing number one for us.To tell the truth, I'm not that concerned about it -- I really enjoy seeing new content on the live realms rather than on the beta or test server, and there's certainly enough Wrath beta news coming through here on WoW Insider about the beta to keep me satisfied. But the beta is only going on for so long, and every day that passes without invites sent to Blizzard's biggest fans (the ones who've spent money on the Dell deal and attended Blizzard's invites) is more of the beta key wasted. I doubt we'll be able to use them again, so it's a shame Blizzard hasn't let us use them yet.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Authenticator failure revisited, Blizzard responds
We created a lot of waves with this post about Blizzard's Authenticator key allegedly failing -- as you know if you've been listening to the podcast, lots of people have emailed us with their own input on the situation, alternately thanking us for making it known that the Authenticator wasn't 100% secure, and lambasting us for being "ignorant" about how Blizzard's security token works. At the base of the story, there are two things we know are true: that someone was using the Authenticator on their account, and then was subsequently hacked. For that reason, we've stood by the "Authenticator fails" story -- while having an Authenticator on your account is a helpful line of defense, it, like all other computer security measures, isn't a 100% guarantee against getting hacked.Most people agree on that. Where opinions differ are in how the account was hacked -- originally, we and a few other sources speculated that the Authenticator had been somehow removed from the account in question. But now Belfaire has responded (we believe to the incident in question, though a link to our story was removed from the original post), and says that as far as he can tell, the Authenticator was not removed from the account. In fact, after the password was changed back, the Authenticator's serial key was asked for and given, so the Authenticator remained attached to the account the whole time.Of course, that just leaves the most important question: how did the account get hacked? We've heard all kinds of various insights as to how the Authenticator works (it only lasts for 60 seconds, supposedly each key can only be used once, so there's no way a keylogger could nab the Authenticator code and reuse it), but the fact remains that the person we're talking about was using the key, and still got hacked. One hack out of all the Authenticators sold so far is a terrific record, and could prove that, statistically, an Authenticator is good as 100% security. But the fact remains that this person got hacked while using the key (however it was done), and if security can be broken once, it will be broken again.
[UPDATED] More Beta invites to be sent out *after*August 1st
My favorite blue poster in the Customer Service Forums has to be Belfaire. He's always got something smart and funny to say, usually in response to annoying forum trolls and others trying hard to be upset about a game. Besides his witty and crazy remarks, he also likes to drop all of us little bits of information here and there. Such is the case in a post today.Belfy confirmed that the next round of Beta invites will be sent out "around" Friday, August 1st "and on." This is another chance for more people to get into the beta. With some luck you might be able to run around and explore the wonders of Northrend. All previous waves of invites have included both BlizzCon, WWI, and Opt-In people.Check your email on the 1st! And check it often! You might just get one. And if you haven't yet, be sure to sign up for the Beta Opt-In.EDIT: Belfaire has issued a correction: "I need to reiterate there that I'm not confirming an August 1st distribution date. I'm confirming that a wave after August 1st will be the one that incorporates the remaining BlizzCon, WWI, and Dell Beta Club invites."
Season three: The reckoning
We have now experienced three full seasons of Arenas in World of Warcraft. The numbers are being crunched and we shall see the winners of end of season rewards shortly. Most of this season has been plagued, like others with dishonesty among some of the players. Blizzard took action a few weeks ago to combat win-trading and point selling with temporary account bans, personal rating requirements for match-ups, and penalties for queue dodging. It seems Blizzard is not quite done meeting out their punishment. On an alt named Wtfkalgan, a player noted:A team recently got reset to 1500 (questioning the judgment of the GM involved isn't the purpose of this thread). The email states, "Note: This also disqualifies the above player from any end of season rewards." Does this mean the player involved is completely ineligible for any end of season rewards, or just from the end of season rewards for the team that received the action? Belfaire, a CM , clarified that this does exclude the character from receiving all end-of-season rewards. This may be an isolated incident, or it may be the beginning of another wide-spread crackdown on arena cheating. This may also include stripping honor from battleground afkers. I can't wait to see how this plays out tomorrow and when rewards are handed out. I'm thinking it's going to be epic. Thanks for the tip, Feller.
Even the GMs are no strangers to love
I've had my fun with rick rolling before. But Rastley and GM Khadarish took it to a new level when Rastley managed to rick roll a GM, all while getting a few gold spammers taken care of. The original screenshot of this was posted on the Customer Service forums, with various CMs and GMs sounding in. Belfaire even comes on to authenticate the conversation.I really enjoy it when the Blizzard staff interacts with the fan base like this. We've even been lucky enough to get whisked away for some special face time. I think it shows that behind the corporate face they have to put on, they're really just people too – and like a joke now and then. I wouldn't recommend doing this however, since you might catch a GM that doesn't think it's funny – but since it worked in this case, it's golden.Check out after the break for the full screenshots. Pretty funny stuff.
