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McAfee report reveals the most dangerous web domains
In an era where clicking on the wrong link while browsing the web could mean your account will get hacked, and one of your guild members clicking on the wrong link means your guild bank could get emptied as well, it's always good to protect yourself and keep abreast of web security issues. In that vein, it's worth checking out a new report released by McAfee called Mapping the Mal Web Report Revisited. It tested 9.9 Million websites in 265 domains to find out which ones had a higher risk of exposing visitors to malware, spam, and malicious attacks via a red, yellow, and green system.
Rumor: Me.com bought by Apple?
Over the weekend, the rumor mills went crazy with reports that Apple had bought a new domain name from their registrar (Mark Monitor). The domain name in question: me.com, which would agree with previous reports of Apple re-branding their .Mac service as "Mobile Me."As we reported earlier it seems Apple is re-launching their .Mac service as an Exchange style service that might even be moving onto other mobile platforms as well as other OSes (including Windows). As an additional reconfirmation of this rumor, the same tipster that told TUAW first about the .Mac refresh contacted us again to say that the rumors are in fact true. This is still solidly in the rumor category, but it is certainly shaping up to be an interesting WWDC.[via MacRumors]
Racism in arena names
I think there are few things more disturbing in the modern world than ill-conceived notions of racial, religious, and sexual divisions. For some reason parts of humanity continue to believe that just because one group or another looks and/or acts differently, they are bad. One of the reasons I enjoy WoW and just games in general is because it allows us to escape the problems this world gives to us, even if only for a few hours a week.Unfortunately, some people find it necessary to bring their attitudes in game. We've covered some of this before, from border-line inappropriate arena names to sexism in WoW. However while playing an arena game recently fellow writer Amanda Dean came up against a team named "Rosa Parks Stole My Seat," and this name is possibly the most offensive one I've seen. Rosa Parks (for those of you who need a history lesson) refused to go to the back of a bus because of her skin color and continued to sit in the white only section of the bus, despite being told to do otherwise. She represented a key moment in the history of civil rights.There are 65 arena teams with this racist name.When Amanda ran into one of the teams she reported it via a GM ticket.
Zune Guy's name change endeavor is back on
We can't say we'd follow in this guy's footsteps for any amount of money, but boy, does it make for fantastic drama. Shortly after the famed Zune Guy (you know, that cat with a trio of Zune-inspired tattoos?) decided to legally change his name to "Microsoft Zune," the plan was put on hiatus after hearing that it cost a whopping $500 to get a name swap. After getting curious, investigating and discovering that he only needed $150 to have it done, he put the mission squarely back on the front burner. Unfortunately, there still stands a chance of the aforesaid name being denied, so he's posted up a poll in order to let the general public give him a list of backups. Personally, we're feelin' McZunin.[Thanks, Brian]
GoDaddy invades WoW Armory
In one of the most bizarre things I've seen happen to the World of Warcraft in my three years playing, the WoW Armory site today is pointing to a generic GoDaddy.com domain parking page. The screenshot above was taken at 1:08 p.m. CST on March 2nd, 2008. WoW Insider has received numerous reports of this. It seems to be a DNS related issue. The domain name wowarmory.com expires today, and it appears as if a registrant has grabbed the wowarmory.com domain name as soon as it expired.DNS entries for blizzard.com and worldofwarcraft.com point to cerf.net, while the DNS servers for wowarmory.com are currently pointing to domaincontrol.com. While some of you might be seeing wowarmory.com work correctly, others are not. The ISPs of people who are seeing it work have not had their DNS records updated yet, however within the next 48 hours they will see wowarmoy.com go down as well; unless Blizzard fixes this before then (I am sure they are already aware, or becoming aware of it).Stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest on this story.Thanks to Matthew Rossi and his wife for contributing to the technical sleuthing in this post.Updated 2:34 p.m. EST: You can access the armory using a sub-domain of worldofwarcraft.com by going to http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/Updated 3:03 p.m. EST: http://www.wowarmory.com/ is now working again. It looks like Blizzard really jumped on the issue and fixed it.
Name that pet
Picking a pet's name is always one of the decisions I like best in WoW. It's creative and interesting, and if done right, it can bring lots of smiles to you and your friends. Naming your own character is also fun of course, but even in light of the name-changing feature, it still feels so permanent to me. With your pets, you can name more than one, and there's always the possibility that in the future you'll get to find some new and incredibly awesome pet and get to think of a name for that one too. Excellent pet namers even have special synergy between their hunter and pet names -- a creative feat which is at once challenging and simple.Mania's Arcania has an interesting little feature: in addition to all her other hunter and pet information, she's started a sort of "contest" called "Name That Pet," where hunters can submit pics of their pets for public inspection, and we all get to help them think of names for them. The latest pet in the series presents an great opportunity for hunter-pet name synergy: an owl tamed by the tauren Hawkspirit. In her blog, Hawkspirit's player shows how her owl finally reached 70, but still doesn't have a name, and Mania is here to help her out.If you're interested in pet names, check it out and apply your naming genus.
Two weeks of paid name changes
It's been a couple weeks now since the paid name change service was initially offered and I've noticed a few people in my guild that have taken advantage of it. While it's certainly personal preference, a lot of the changed names seem worse to me than the old ones. Some of them were obviously chosen for comic value, since they're reminiscent of the guy in the picture over here.Regardless of my opinions about the specific names, everyone I've talked to has said that the service was quick and easy. I also haven't heard any horror stories regarding sociopathic players changing their names to wreak more havoc upon unsuspecting victims under a new moniker. From my limited experience, it seems like an overall positive change to the game.Have you paid to change your name? What was your old one and what's your new one? Was your experience with the service a good one?
Jesus Christ spotted in Tabula Rasa
Razor over at Razorwire experienced a surprising theophany in the world of Tabula Rasa. "I was playing Tabula Rasa last night," he said, "when a figure wearing battle armor and carrying a chain gun ran past me and my avatar provided the appropriate double-take for me. The character's name was Jesus Christ."Yes, Jesus Christ in Tabula Rasa. Obviously, Jesus Christ wasn't really playing Tabula Rasa (well, we assume he wasn't, anyway), but whether the use of the name amuses you, offends you, or both, it brings up some interesting questions about Tabula Rasa's naming policy -- questions Razor asks in his post. Give it a read. It's not super in-depth, but he points out that because Tabula Rasa is not a fantasy world like World of Warcraft or The Lord of the Rings Online, it uses a different naming policy. That policy opens the door to abuses that would have been nipped in the bud far earlier in those other titles.According to Razor there is unfortunately no way to report the name because the game's GM help features are still disabled.
Will name changes let ninjas run free?
While Robin and I think it's a great idea, some people are in an outcry about the upcoming name-change service that Blizzard is offering. As Monsoon tells Blizzard on the forums:This is probably the worst ever decision ever made. How are we supposed to track ninjas and retards who may apply to our guild if there is no way to track their name changes?"Nethaera calmly responds:Perhaps putting them on an ignore list might help.The ignore list will be automatically updated once that character's name change gets activated. Of course no system is fool proof, and there will always be someone looking to exploit things, but realistically, is it a terribly big problem if people you consider "ninjas" and "retards" yet are still unwilling to put on your ignore list can change their names once every 90 days? In my experience, the kind of person who likes to call others "retards" generally isn't very nice themselves, and tends to find new "retards" all the time (with no offense meant to Monsoon here). I don't think it would be possible, even if the ignore list were extended to include a potential thousands of names, for some people to be satisfied that all the "ninjas" and "retards" were sufficiently dealt with and removed from the system
Got a bad reputation in World of Warcraft? Change your name for 10 bucks
Blizzard is issuing new World of Warcraft character I.D. name tags for a whopping 10 dollars on select servers. If it's bad, you know really bad -- your named drag through the mud sort of deal over random guild's cyber scandal -- you can transfer right away and get a name change! Behind every name is a story, you couldn't help the formula, it went (anonymity + online gaming = instant jacktard). You did the math wrong and very bad things happened. You tore your last guild asunder, made a few people shrivel up in a corner and shed tears, and caused people to lose brain cells spewing Chuck Norris jokes in Barrens chat. There, there, it happens to best and worst of us. That's not it -- fate is cruel -- you are the worst Paladin on your server because you didn't realize classes had talents until level 70 and life just plain sucks. You need a little identity switch-a-roo if you ever want get into a guild group or even find a guild for that matter. If you are like me and had no idea what you were thinking when naming a character, you probably want to change your naming etymology around from "trollbawlerinas" to something more sophisticated and fantastical like "paincakes." Oh, and if you have trouble thinking up a name check out this lovely gallery for a few ideas over at our other blog, WoW Insider. Yes, I know that there are practical and legitimate reasons why a player should have the ability to change their character names and I support Blizzard's decision to allow it. The Warden will beat down the hackers and Blizzard's Game Masters have all sorts of crazy tools at their disposal to track and penalize dastardly profiteering gold farmers -- make ban hammer go faster. Some players might want to change their character name if some weirdo is harassing them because you know stalking is bad. Official announcement and list of server test-beds after the jump:
Finally! Paid Name Changes
Blizzard has announced that they will change your character's name to an available, allowable name for $10 and I say, "It's about time!". This is an administrative service that should have been available from the beginning, in my opinion. Regardless, it's available now (on selected servers) and here are the rules: It's $10 per name change. You can't change your name again for 90 days and your old name will be unavailable for 90 days as well. It has to be available on your server. Captain Obvious says, "Duh!". It will take a few hours while they approve your name change, since it must follow the Naming Policy. While the name change process takes place, your character will be unavailable. The name change is permanent unless you pay to change it again 90+ days later. This function is being rolled out in phases, a few servers at a time. Characters on your ignore list who have had their names changed will remain there with the new name. (Update: edited for clarity) Blizzard has a FAQ page setup on their Support Site if you have more questions. If this is something that interests you, go to the Account Management page and select Paid Character Transfer (you will have to login). I actually like my character names, but I reserve the right to change my mind at any time and I'm glad I now have the option. The official forum announcement with the list of the first phase of servers is after the jump.
What's in a name?
Last night over guild chat the subject of naming our characters arose. Someone asked exactly how we chose our character names. It's a pretty personal question, at least it is for me. Being a writer pretty much all my life, my player character names are mostly names from my writing. There are also those characters that have been created out of jokes, or as representations of their jobs like Donations. I've built character names out of thin air as well, mostly because I love character creation beyond all other things. Most of my characters' names are fantasy in nature since being a fantasy writer I tend to be a stickler on that sort of thing. But some of my characters have looser based names. My priest is named Mandie, for obvious reasons. My paladin I've called Vashlyra, which is a combination of my dogs' names. I once even had a gnome rogue named Runnt. Perhaps that is part of why I love creating new characters so much. I get to give them a name, and infuse them with personality and back story. Every new character is a chance to rewrite the story, and each name is so important to me. But I am just one player in millions. I know my guild mates choose names differently. We have one player whose characters are all named variations of the same word. We have another who picks all his names from the random name generator. And yes, we are a guild populated mostly by alts, if you must know, so there are plenty of characters to name. On the other hand, I have seen many, many names that I cannot stand. I have actually found a correlation between horrible players and those who named their characters by picking a cool word they like and tacking on the letter X at the end (CipherX, you know who you are.) On our server I have run into Linksys, Pallyman and my personal favorite Ooitsahamster. I have even seen some I cannot believe haven't been reported. Now while I am more of a name snob, I can see why people choose to have fun with their character's names. What I cannot see is playing a character with a ridiculous name until 70. How do you choose your character names? Is it something tied to characters you have always played, or do you close your eyes and hit 'random?' What makes you connect with a name, or do you have no connection to it at all?
Friday Video: We said we wanted a revolution ....
As we discussed this morning, it's been a year since Nintendo announced the new "Wii" moniker for their bold new console concept. We thought the weekly video spotlight might offer a good chance to look back at some of the videos, from the Wii's first ad to some fanmade videos both for and against the name switch.
Wii name celebrates first anniversary
It may seem like we've been talking about it forever, but it was just a year ago today that Nintendo revealed the console formerly known as the Revolution would henceforth be called the Wii. Immediate reactions ranged from derisive and disbelieving to defensive on the part of Nintendo itself, but by the time Nintendo's E3 press conference rolled around the initial furor had already subsided into a gentle buzz of Internet jokes.At the time, we confidently predicted that, eventually, "this new name will seem as nifty, familiar and as comfortable as that silly controller once it's all said and done." Well, were we right? Are you able to mention the Wii without snickering like a schoolgirl, or do you still feel vaguely uncomfortable talking about Nintendo's latest console. Lend us your opinion in the comments.[Thanks to vidGuy for the reminder]
Wii Warm Up: It's been a year
A year ago, Nintendo announced that the Revolution had a name, and that name was Wii. And lo did the voices of a million gamers rise in a chorus of, "WTF?! Wii?? OMG, it's so over for Nintendo!"Obviously, we were wrong. Oh, sure, not everyone thought the name was a bad idea, but it was such an overwhelming majority that the dissenters hardly mattered. A year later, however, it's become apparent that the name that curled so many lips was actually a brilliant move, marketing-wise. But no harm, no foul; we all already admitted that we overreacted. But this strange anniversary still seems a good time to look back at not just the name change, but everything about the Wii. These days, analysts are predicting epic Wii shortages, whereas eight months ago, it was far more popular to predict the Wii to lag behind both the PS3 and the 360. How has your overall attitude changed in the past year? Is there anything you think or predict now that runs counter to your mindset last April?
The Spectrobes ain't got no love for Sega
We have to thank Spencer Yip of Siliconera for doing an interesting bit of investigative reporting on the subject of what is and isn't acceptable in Spectrobes. So, there are a lot of things you can't name your Spectrobes ... mostly things you probably wouldn't say in front of your mother unless there were major extenuating circumstances. And we all tend to agree on a working list of what those words are, right? Well, apparently, someone at Jupiter has a mother who reaches for the soap for things we wouldn't even consider minor infractions, like "Sega."Yes, Sega. In Spectrobes, you can't name any of the critters "Sega," though other developers are fair game. We have a theory about this Sega hate. We're guessing it just may be due to those commercials. You know -- pretty much all of them, and particularly the EXTREME!! Sega shout. We're guessing that someone heard that one too many times, and after Blast Processing, it was just the last straw.
Apple and Cisco agree to delay lawsuit, maybe hug it out
Good news on the "let's sue Apple!" front. Apple and Cisco, in a "tersely" worded joint statement yesterday, announced that Cisco has agreed to delay its iPhone lawsuit, while the two companies start up talks again to see if they can't settle this naming dispute out of court. It's unclear if Apple suddenly decided the lawsuit wasn't so terribly "silly" and decided its best shot at a cheap solution was an out of court settlement, or if Cisco was afeared that its once firm grasp on the trademark was slipping, and decided to grab the money and run. Or maybe, just maybe, the two companies decided that with all the petty bickering in the world, couldn't they just get along? Oh man, sometimes we just crack ourselves up.
Wii Warm Up: So how is the name?
Once upon a time, the Wii was known as the Revolution, and it was good. Then Nintendo announced that the console's real name would be Wii, and the backlash rocked the media and gaming community. Also, there were a lot of anatomical jokes.But here we are, not quite a year later, basking in the success of the new system ... when we can stop playing it, that is. We've had a little time to get used to the new name, but we have to ask -- how is it? Do you like "Wii" now? Does it suit the system? Or has the Wii succeeded thus far in spite of the name?We also recommend going back and looking at the comments on that old post, as they're certain to make interesting reading alongside what is said here today.
Darkness renamed Midnight [update 1]
Accordingly to all reputable sources, the game-formerly-known-as-Darkness is, at the very least, still a year off from release. The survival-horror project, one of Crossbeam Studio's trifecta of titles (Orb, Thorn, and Darkness), had to be renamed due to copyright conflicts with The Darkness, a title by 2k Games. Thus, Crossbeam Studios has announced an official name change of Darkness to Midnight. Still awesome. Name changes are fine and dandy, but someone needs to let Sega know that Wildfire is still way cooler than Secret Rings.[Update 1: Silly us ... we confused Sadness with Darkness. Fixed.]
Apple Inc., beyond the "Computer"
With all the hubbub today folks may have missed a small but telling detail. Given the focus on iPods and now the iPhone, Jobs announced the company itself had changed its name from "Apple Computer Inc." to simply "Apple Inc." (already reflected on the bottom of the homepage, right). Since the iPod became such a hit, many old-time Mac folks have worried that that Apple was increasingly moving away from the Macintosh. While I think it's premature to worry too much, certainly the change in name reflects a substantial shift in Apple's (or perhaps better, Steve Jobs') understanding of what Apple is as a company. It's starting to look like Apple is repositioning itself into a consumer electronics company that also makes computers (Sony, anyone?). What this means in the long term, both for the Mac and for Apple, is anyone's guess. It's heartening, though, that the iPhone will run OS X, so we can hope that even as Apple goes into new markets it won't forget the Mac faithful who got it here in the first place. What's your take on the name change?
