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Google plans to add “page experience” to the factors it considers when ranking pages in Search.
Week in Review: Post-order elation
At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post. Early in the week we began to get word that the Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order was about to hit -- and lo and behold, it did. For fans desperate to get their hands on the title, knowing that there's a copy out there reserved just for them became the next best thing. Unfortunately, we also learned that not every region was to get SWTOR initially, and a few grumpy feelings ensued. Hopefully the other SWTOR news coming out of Comic-Con, such as confirmation of beta weekends in September, is enough to keep the pre-launch anticipation positive and peppy! Hit the jump to see the rest of this past week's top stories.
WoW Insider Show Episode 123: Goodnight everybody
The WoW Insider Show podcast aired once again this Saturday, with me and my guest hosts Matthew Rossi and Colby Moore delving into reader emails and this week's top stories on WoW.com. Thrill as we answer the age-old question of "Is it worth it to skip bosses in random heroics?" Marvel as we say it's pretty okay for Blizzard to help out the police! Gasp as I forget to thank my cohosts at the end of the show and pull a Yakko Warner! Goodnight everybody. As always, you can email us at theshow@wow.com with any questions or comments -- we might even read yours live on the air. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show Episode 122: Press the [Spoon] button
The WoW Insider Show podcast continued along its very merry way this Saturday, and a good time was had by all. Guest co-host Matt Rossi and I discussed our favorite WoW.com stories from the first half of 2009 (with more to come this Saturday), talked a little about Icecrown progression and gating, and weighed in on the quality of Wrath's various patches. We also discussed some very romantic Saber Lash fight strategies, as you might guess by the title of this week's show. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to listen this week -- we've still got a few kinks to work out with the new format, but we're pretty pleased with this week's show and next week's should be even better. As always, if you have a question or comment for the show, email us at theshow@wow.com and you might just hear it on the air. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
Number 1: Ezra has the Phoenix mount
May 30th, 2007: The Phoenix mount is indeed in-game... with Ezra! A little while before this post, we'd posted the story of Ezra Chatterton, a boy dealing with cancer who'd been to Blizzard headquarters with the Make-a-Wish foundation, and while there, had gotten outfitted in epics, and had gotten to create his own character, questline, and even provide some voiceover for it. Through the course of that story, our writer Krystalle Voecks got in touch with Micah, Ezra's father, and a little while after that, Micah came to us with a request.While at Blizzard, Ezra had been given one of the coolest items in game thus far: a rumored epic flying Phoenix mount. Kael'thas hadn't been dropped yet at that point, so we had no idea where it would come from, but Ezra had been given the very first one, and he was worried that if he took it out on the realms, people would judge him or be jealous of him for having gotten such a special item from Blizzard, even before the world first guilds and hardcore raiders. So with Micah's permission, we broke the exclusive story, and Krystalle wrote a great post explaining what the Phoenix mount meant to Ezra, and that he was the first to get it in the game. And players responded, of course, with nothing but generosity and kindness.As we reported earlier this year, Ezra sadly passed away. But Micah shared that to the end, the WoW community meant everything to them, and of course we are extremely proud to have our top story ever be the one where we were exclusively able to announce Ezra's gift from Blizzard to the world.It's been a wild three years, and of course, we've covered many, many more stories than these, from Tseric's departure from Blizzard, to the Burning Crusade and Wrath midnight releases, to the BlizzCon ticket chaos and all of the other craziness from the World of Warcraft and the gigantic community surrounding it. We're glad you've been along for the ride for the past three years -- here's to many more!Go back to the beginning of the list.
