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A year of WoW in Europe
World of Warcraft has been available in Europe for a year now, and to celebrate, lead produce Shane Dabiri has written a letter to the community. According to this, some of Blizzard's 2006 goals include fee-based character transfers, more content for casual level 60s and even more world events. It's difficult for Blizzard to work with such a diverse community, so "personal" attention like this is very welcome.As part of the celebration, the anniversary contests are now open to enter, so get those chat-up lines ready.February 11th, 2006 was a turning point for me; I started playing WoW on release date and I haven't looked back since. As a European player there are a few things that are very high on my wishlist. My main problem is not being able to play with American friends; despite hints from Blizzard that such a thing would be possible, they have since said that nothing is planned along these lines yet. I can understand why Blizzard segregate their customers, but for those of us who game internationally it can still be annoying.Character transfers will take care of another wishlist item, although it's going to take a lot of organisation amongst my various WoW-playing friends and acquaintances to consolidate our servers. Finally, I would really like some European-themed events, and--admittedly, this is a minor point--localisation of in-game text to British English ("honour" kills would be excellent). Despite this, we've had a great year together; thanks, Blizzard!
European first anniversary approaches
On the 11th of February 2005, Europe changed forever. Thousands of gamers--make that over one million to date--rushed out to buy World of Warcraft, and many of us haven't looked back since. WoW Europe's first birthday is approaching, and as part of the celebration Blizzard are offering two competitions: a fan art contest themed around "One Year of Loving WoW" and a WoW pick-up lines competition. I don't envy Blizzard the job of sifting through thousands of identical entries along the line of "Hey baby, wanna see my epics?", but who knows? Maybe those tired old /flirt voice emotes will change at last.
Switched On turns one: The Maven
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment. Today's Switched On's first birthday, so as a present we gave Ross his very own banner. Wish Switched On a happy birthday, why don't you? Once upon a midnight madness sale I sauntered, steeped in sadness,Through the shiny piles and aisles composing my computer store.Suddenly there came a rapping. "Skeet skeet skeet." Had I been napping?Energy, it had been sapping from my soul for weeks or more.Yea, those loathsome customers had chilled my being for weeks or more.Back-to-school had drained my core.Soon the winds would bring the winter - time to sell each mouse, each printer."Profit!" said I, "Thing of evil? Nah," applying Avacor.For while came the rare exception, money flowed from deep deception.Ignorance would find reception warm throughout each corridor.From these fools I'd find the dollars flow down every corridor.Idiots I did adore.There I saw him, by the mobos, dressing like those unkempt hobos -Greasy hair atop the fat and pimples that adorned each pore.Mannerisms quite absurd, he stood there mumbling, looking nerdy,Yet I could not find the word he brought to mind inside the store.In that squalid rust of malice did he slither through the store,Saying naught and nothing more.Fate approached him as a customer who seemed at once to trust him."Are these cameras any good? I've never shopped for one before."Glasses thick, stubble unshaven, spewing trivia like Cliff Clavin,On he went, this crazy maven bragging of his Slashdot score."If you read my blog, you'd know my postings rate above a four.'Funny' and 'Insightful' are the words you'd see with five or four."After which she fled the store.Then a man who lacked acumen caused his targeting to zoom in."Windows spyware drives me nuts. Removing it is such a chore."This Mac mini sure looks swell so buying it would end my hell, no?""Apple's switching to Intel so I would wait a year or more"And you'll want new software too if you don't wait a year or more."Quoth the maven, "Leave the store."
