Posts Tagged 'Blizzard'

Account Invasion incomming!

Published January 10, 2011 World Of Warcraft 12 Comments
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Click for a bigger version.

It looks legit.  Even from my ‘safe’ list of emails.  ( but we know that can be faked)

There is alot of signs that it is certainly not a real email from Blizzard, and is in fact a  spam/phishing  email.

I find the “account invasion” most funny.    Of course if you mouse over the blue link text you get a slightly different link.

The language is all wrong.  They really need to pay their proof readers more, and I love

“If you had already authenticator your account, please disregard this automatic notification.”

Translation: Your going to be too hard to hack so we shall not bother.

Oh – Level one characters whispering me ” Are you there Zahraah?”  ( typical gold selling introduction)   get the hint when I reply ” Not if your trying to sell me gold”  and I was only saying yesterday I need to learn to say ” F Off ” more.  Damn this being polite business.

 

Take a bow.

Published July 12, 2010 World Of Warcraft 4 Comments
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I can’t not – not post something about Blizzard taking back their plans  for real names on forums.

But well done internets.  Take a bow –   you have won.  For now perhaps,  but at least a reprive.

I feel like it was a bit of  a flash in a pan though.   

They announced it.  The interwebs exploded.  They backed down.

Good on them for doing so,  however I can’t help but feel that there is more to come.

Companies don’t make grandiose changes such as this,  and not run this by group of people affected by the change.  I’m sure market research  would have told them already what the internet had to say so loudely.

So  did their market research group fail to represent us the people who play? Or did they already know that the fall out would be,  and were willing to take on the risks?

I’m betting they knew,  so it seems for now the risks outweigh what ever benifit Blizzard could have received.  

Blizzard also  realised that when you do get an issue and personal  identifyable information is made available it doesn’t just affect you – it ‘s not just information about you – it’s your family, your children – your workplace.  You are not an island.

I don’t necessarily agree with what information was made public about the people they reseached.  I would hope now that the point is made,  it goes away, except with the internet nothing ever really goes away.

But it will be interesting to see what compromises come out .

Real ID – Don’t update so much bro

Published June 24, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 7 Comments
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Of course I used it.  

“Whats your email?” someone asked
“I haven’t quite decided if I will be using it yet” I replied.
“I’m on your facebook – what does it matter?”

How could I argue with that logic? It would be paranoid to even suggest that social media can be used for the wrong reasons. Cough Cough

However really, all you are getting is my full name which they know anyway, and   is rather common anyways, and basically what toon I am playing at the time, and what zone I am in.

ICC = Raiding

Nagrand = Barebacked pony riding ( kidding –  though you should try barebacked flying on a 310% mount weeeeeeeeee)
 

PING!

A reason why I never want that list to be big though is that it’s a little distracting. I keep glancing at the corner of my screen with all the pinging it’s doing.

*blah* has come online
*blah* has gone offline
*blah* has updated their status

I get told when their status updates change.

*ping!*
* I just had dinner
*Hi Guys!

Can you see the potential for annoying spamage?  

An ICC raid in Status updates – for example ( FICTION)

Waiting for raid to start. OMG get in the instance already. Missing Pally Buff – stupid pallys. OMG Rogue missed a trap. SPIKE SPIKE. Yeah Marrow Dead.  KILL THE ADDS,  OMG died on Gunship. Ew Blood fever.  Woot DV dropped!. >< DK stole my loots. *slurps drink. HAHAHAHAH Priest died in steam. Slimed!. Crap didn’t get the spore.  Yeah My boots dropped!  >< DK stole my lootz. Wish they would let me be the A bomb for a change. Wiped on PP!.  Wiped on PP again.  *BURP*. Wiped on PP AGAIN.  Oh I was supposed to kill the oozes too. Weee beach balls!. Munching on Twisties. Move healer your in my range! Bite me..  Bite Me…  What does this blue circle mean?  Yeah I went in portal! I’m flying. Opps fell down the hole. ARGHGHGHG Spiders!  Died on trash. Sister downloading again.  DC’d. Cleaved.  Lag is soooooo bad,  can’t run out fast enough.  I’m a happy little iceblock,  as cold as cold can be.  Ew whats that grey stuff on the ground.  I’m flying! weeeeeee.  LK’s chair isn’t very comfy.

Of course when I updated my status to say that we killed Heroic Sin 25 my small list of friends congratulated me.

‹Busy›

You can set your status  to away or busy, and  when you whisper that person you get notified that they are away or busy,  which is particularly  annoying  when they are the one psting you – and your reply get accompanied by more spam about them being away.

Shiny Shiny

My very first impression of the UI is it feels odd.  I mean,  my chat is now crome and shiny like in its appearance,  and the subtle beeps it makes when random things happen makes me think how much that it doesn’t belong with the rest of my UI.  Maybe it’s feel is more at home in Starcraft,  but in Wow,  this science ficcy type interface, and noise,  It’s modernisation makes it feels like it would seem more at home on a touch screen device then a computer screen.

Stranger Danger


I was doing arena with some guildies, and I got a friend invite, and I’m like who is  * over vent  and one of my arena partners says – “All the guild members had been getting them”  Our first fake friend spam. ( or maybe a lost guildy – I’ll never know cause I had nooooo idea who they were, and they didn’t introduce themselves.)  *BLOCK*   You don’t have to add their email to invite them, you just need to add their name, it’s a lot easier to add randoms.  It would be extremely useful for direct marketing.

“Hi Friend – I have some stuff I can sell to you”

 

I guess it’s still early days,  and so still waiting for the long term,  but those are my experiences/impressions so far.   I would like to see Blizzard add in features that let you reduce the notification spam.  Especially since the person is not really ‘offline’ under this system untill they log out of the game. Technically because all your toons are linked – if you are on your character screen – your still there.  There is supposed to be this real person focus.  I don’t care about your toon going Online/Offline I care about YOU going offline/online.

Using the Remote Auction House.

Published May 22, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 13 Comments
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It’s 2am in the morning

Your all snuggled under your blankets  ( Cold in Sydney atm)

You reach for your Iphone charging on your bedside table  – I wonder if my Auctions sold?


On the Train in comming home from work –   Tired, and someone’s stinking armpit in your face,

you reach for your Iphone – I wonder if Glacial Salmon are cheap by the stack right now?


At a Pub Drinking Bier with a friend that Plays horde  who says –  “I need 25 Primordial Saronite ”  but they are so freaken expensive. Me:  “they go for 800 odd on my server.  Let me check.”

Ok I’ll be honest – none of the above has happened in RL. but it could!  I updated my WOW Armory app today and saw the Auction house box – and for the sake of curiosity I clicked on it, wanting to see.

The search function was quite easy to use

I ran in to several problems when it came to posting an auction.

After logging in with my Battle Net details –  I realised that my Banking Alt is level 1 – much like most banking alts are,  so of course armory doesn’t see them,  so Remote AH couldn’t look in her bags,  which is where all the stuff  I intend to sell,  but not posted is.

The other stuff of mine worth selling was in my  guild bank  – and not accesible.  It only lets you access your own bank.

So I was left with what ever spare stuff in mains bank that I didn’t need to play with.  I scrolled through, and found a glyph. So after Selecting the Gylph, and noticing that if you scroll down the page it tells you what other Auctions  are similar to give you so you can work out what price you want to make it.

I entered in something a little less then what was current,

And then went to confirm.

Where it asked me to Log in again, and my Authenticator number.

I don’t mind having to type my password again for security reasons,   but If I was posting more then one Auction it would annoy me. I do understand from a security point though the need.

The Request for the Authenticator annoyed me the worst. No I lie it’s worse.  It just made having a remote Auction house useless to me. My Authenticator does not leave my desk.  It means I should not lose it.  It even has a little plastic hook on the side of my 22 inch monitor where it dongles.  If I changed to a Iphone App Authenticator then I still need to leave the Wow armory app,  get the number from a 2nd Application and then complete the auction.  Because I did not get past that point,  I don’t know if it will ask for my password, and my code for each auction.

In addition, When I was Playing with the remote AH feature on my phone ( was syncing to get the screenies off it.  I tried to log into my Wow account on my PC, and got an error message.   You can’t be in your Wow game,  and the remote AH  at the same time.

So why the Remote AH Does not work for me.

  • I have to level a bank alt to use it , or change my bank alt.
  • I can’t access my Guild Bank
  • I have to take my Authenticator with me to use.
  • You can’t connect a auction house mod to it so your manually typing and calculating prices
  • It looks like I will need to confirm my Auctions with passwords / authenticators.

And a note on the Auction house remote access and its impact on extending my game play to that extent..

I have an iphone – that is distracting enough,  with 8 pages of apps and a 3g connection *hums “Theres a zombie on your lawn….. ”   I already fiddle with my iphone on the train,  on the street,  at work, at the pub, at my mums for dinner.  I don’t want to feel the need to be so connnected to my auctions,  and to wow that I need to being doing my Auction Housing remotely.

I can see benifit in being able to  access guild chat,  or battlenet chat if that feature becomes available.

But is our gaming so economy driven that we need to be so connected to it to this extent to play. The social benefit,  being connected ,  I can understand that – if that’s your thing,  and while some of us may enjoy playing the auction house  is your Ahing that much part of your wow experience you need to be  so plugged in?

Sure the $3 a month is maybe a minor cost  ( unless your dollar is now 80 cents to the US dollar again.  Fail !)  but at this point,  not something I shall use.

It is however a little exciting,  at what technology Blizzard is able, and willing to use  to integrate with game.

Social Media – Bloggers and Blizzard

Published April 16, 2010 Battle Ground , MMORPG Closed
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Theres a recent Mashable article ” How to Target Social Media Influencers to Boost traffic and sales”   Basically  – find out  who your 1%  are – What they like to share  –  where they hang out –  what motivates them – and make them famous.     The article says

On average, approximately 1% of a site’s audience generates 20% of all its traffic through sharing of the brand’s content or site links with others. And these “influencers” drive an even higher share of conversion. These very important Internet users can directly influence 30% or more of overall end actions on brand websites by recommending the brand’s site, products or promotions to friends.

Now this is  relevent because Larisa asks “Has Blizzard put the Wow blogging community on Ignore”  and she has noticed that community sites,  including bloggers are severely underrepresented in Blizzards Fan site  program. Two of the 4 reasons Blizzard gave  as to why not  are  “Limited Interest they hold to the community, and the big amount of them”  This makes sence when you look at a social media marketing model.

Remember that Map of the World of Warcraft online communities Map by Tim Howgego this was done back in 2008 – so it may have changed by now – “The South West of the Map is dominated by the ‘Blog-o-sphere” but only one blog  Wow Insider ( now wow.com)  is named

If you look at that  Community Map,  it really puts into perspective who else is out there.  Blogging about WOW is only one way Wow players are expressing their love of a game.  We are still little fish, in a big ocean.

Larisa points out that some bloggers have gotten a nod from Blizzard, but those who have,  BRK, Resto4life  and I will  even add  Breanni, from Warcraftpets   a fan site – maybe they are our 1%   – Blizzard have immortalised these bloggers / players  –  created legends  given connection to the rest of us and hope  that one day – maybe Blizzard will notice us – and name a gun after us.   ( The Pugnacious Collar is not mine – pure co-incidence – as if they would give me a non Spell power neck. )

They don’t need to give more bloggers  love.  We will still love them regardless, and the messages / fame /  that they do give to the 1% will be enough – because  that  social media market model theories that by reaching that 1% you are reaching and influencing 30%  – you don’t need to acknowledge even the top 10% to get your message across.

Changing Faces – Would Facial Skins work?

Published June 12, 2009 Gaming , MMORPG , Tricks , World Of Warcraft 1 Comment
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Have the new druid skins in Warcraft opened up a greater possibility for more character customisation, or are Blizzard going to leave it as just livening up a typical and repetitive form and the chance to be a little more unique?

Once upon a time I played Sims.  The orginal. After accidently discovering  that if you brought a particular piece of artwork and sold it 24 hours later  it was worth about 5 times as much – none of my Sims ever worked another day in their life.

One thing the Sims had was the ability to take a picture of two of my favourite TV Actors that had never ever got together in the script -( even though we knew they belonged with each other) and using the Tool that was available on the Game – I stuck their faces on a Sim each , and then set them up in their own little house. ( With art investment as their income source)

There has  already been  some discussion ages ago about the possibility of tattoos, and colour customisation of gear in Warcraft so you could colour coordinate, but what about the ability to Morph a real  photo with your characters facial skin?

It has its Limitations such as there would need to be a review of the uploads to ensure that they don’t breech  copywrite ( such as celebrity images – Imagine how many Angelina Jolie  Blood Elves would be running round.  They would need to be checked for adult content, and even maybe a check to make sure that the image quaility was sufficient, and the features morph well enough with the character skin,  and thats alot of work  – but  what could be  unique and customisable then using real faces.

Your Toon could be wearing your face as you Swing your sword, or destroy  your enemies with a blast, a flay.

It has lots of scope for abuse.    An image of anyone would work,  so perhaps your hearts desire rejected you in real life,  their face could live on as one of your Toons, and that gets a little creepy.

There would also be some races where the Morphing wouldn’t work as well.   Eg Undead , and Tauren.

I tried mucking around with Morph Thing to see what sort of Morphed image I would get – yes thats me sorta..  Its a Posed pic I had on my PC that was the closest headshot that matched & that I liked enough to stick on a public blog. ( and its 18 months old… ) .

 

Morphed me

So In conclusion: I think the result would be a little creepy  – on the upside its still Nightelfish enough to be considered a render of a fantasy type Skin,  but its not recongnisable as a person  – and pixel quality is crap.  I think If the Morphing software had a more gradual Morph to play with then I would have gotten better results,  but do you think these are still recognisable in any way?

Britney-Spears--closeupface-jpgNight Elf Britany

closeupface-jpg--Audrey-Hepburn

Night Elf Audrey

Blizzards New Policy on Addons – a Shared Topic.

Published April 1, 2009 Gaming , MMORPG , World Of Warcraft 9 Comments
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I have been slack in my Shared topics,  but  it was ActuallyBRK’s  farewell that prompted me to write something on Blizzards new Policy on Add ons

Why was the loss of another great blogger my inspiration.

Wow /Life/Work balance – and this is relevant to add on developers because they put real time into writing and maintaining a add on, for the most for free. – as do bloggers. 

The Joker said in the Dark Knight “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”    But what happens if what you do isn’t your own work and ideas

The 1st thing my friends say to me when I talk about my blog is – ” Oh you could make money from that”  I know some bloggers do – be it through ads, banners,  mechandise.  At this point I don’t plan to.  I don’t think I am a big enough ‘product’ to be worthy of any form of commercialisation.   I don’t put the work in to my blog that those who are worthy of such commercialism/market do.  I don’t want to put that much time in.

As a blogger I do look to people of BRK’s ilk as inspiration & motivation, the  cornerstone bloggers,  bloggers with a brand name built over time to become an regonised authorithy, a source of information and entertainment, but he did this for free, and that free came with a cost.  Time – and time not spent in places that matter more.

Do you think if BRK could cut out work – and make a living off blogging/playing wow that his decision would have been different? Would he had been able to achieve a better Balance?

This relates back to the New add on policy  – because the developers aren’t getting paid by Blizzard – they do this for the love – ‘for free’  some of the more premium add ons required payment.  Others asked for donations –  our bloggers don’t charge money for the service and information that they provide.  Heck between us, and other fan sites  we make a better user manual then Blizzard ever has.

The new policy states  that  the add ons  must be “be free of charge, may not solicit donations, and their code must be completely visible. – Could this rule then be applied to bloggers who have paypal donation buttons on their blogs?

I don’t use any add ons  that require payment.  I also have never donated to an addon developer. while  the purist approach of no add ons to keep the game real is appealing,   it is also not practical for raiding seriously. none the less,  the developers applied real life skill to an creative idea and circumstance that belonged to someone else.

There’s the catch – Is it right for someone to profit from someone elses creative ideas without a formal agreement of some compensation to the owner of the copyrighted material.

I don’t believe so. 

Blizzard are generous with their creative commons licence – because of this I can blog about Wow,  I can use pictures of my toon, make banners and post screenshots without fear of copy write infringement, but when it comes down to it,  I own nothing – I have no copy-write over anything I produce that’s directly related to Wow.    Nor should I.

There are some fiction Authors that disallow any fan fiction ( Anne rice) ,  others that set rules ( Elizabeth Moon) and some that have been taking other people to court ( JK Rowling) because people are cashing in on her ideas.

It is well within the Authors right under copy-write laws to protect, and control their own ideas.  

I acknowledge that developers put a lot of real time and real skill,  into their add ons.  However Some of the these developers are obviously making enough money – and achieving enough notoriety to come to the attention of Blizzard  Unfortunately by targeting the larger known ones that are probably making a tidy sum by now,  a blanket policy is also catching the little ones. 

While you can’t solicit donations for your WOW mod.  You are still allowed to self promote yourself as a product. Use the notoriety gained by your Wow add to launch yourself to places  where your own ideas, and copywrite can be applied.

While I don’t look at this blog as a commercial venture  – I get to write about something I love, I’m also writing regularily which any writer will know is a great habit to keep – I am constantly thinking how to present an idea,  does it makes sense, I am  becoming a better writer because of it ( forgive my spelling sometimes please) . I’ve been at it for over a year. I think I am getting what I need from blogging, and I hope that I will continue to use this blog as a stepping stone as motivation, and practise to be doing the things for which the ideas and creative elements are 100% my own.

I don’t think Blizzards policy is unfair.  They are looking after their own commercial interests,   but we all love our add ons.  It will be a pity  if we lose some, or all because of this new policy, but I hope that the ones who do it for the love continue to do so,  and that they look at ways of marketing themself, so that they can use the experience, and skills they applied to making a Wow add on, to something orginal that can make them even more money.

Baby Blizzard Bear Love.

Published November 22, 2008 Gaming , World Of Warcraft 4 Comments
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Its WOW’s 4 year Anniversary, and for logging in on the 23rd of November, you get an achievment, “Wow’s 4th Anniversary” and you get a nice little present in the mail.

The Baby Blizzard Bear.

He is very cute!

 

 

77.81 US Shipping for a Freaking USB Sized Authenticator?

Published September 18, 2008 Gaming , World Of Warcraft 11 Comments
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I am in shock.

No: I am bent over laughing in a manical manner, with phychotic drool pouring out of my dumbfounded mouth

So the Authenticators are available to us Aussies now…

While I was in their store I decided to buy the soundtrack as well.  Trying to Pad the purchase so I browsed the limited other items in the store, and that was all that tickled my fancy.

suffered through slow connections to find.

Authenticator was  $6.50 and CD $9.99

Now add that our dollar is sitting under 0.80 US atm ( for the banks FX calc I used )  that brings the order to 118.14 Aus

Seriously.

No.

Now thinking perhaps that the system got confused, and that i can live without the CD if I saved a good portion of the shipping,  so I deleted the CD and then…

So I’ve canx the order for now.

Yes I know there is no price for security – but thats to a point… like A Medium point.

This is extorsion.  I live in metro Sydney Australia – not the behind end of the world in the middle of the desert

I think it would be cheaper to pay a courier to pick one up for me and stand in line at a po box and stick the envelope in the mailbox..

Oceanic Forums for Wow..

Published July 11, 2008 Gaming , World Of Warcraft 2 Comments
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So us Oceananicans have our own forums now.. 

Um Why? –

So far 6 pages of Forum text has been filled with..  “Anyone from.. ”   and “Why do we have our own  forums”

So after wading through people looking for  various cities in Australia or Suburbs to ‘represent.. ‘  the question as to why? is remaining un answered.  Speculation and desire for our own servers here in Oz  are rampant. Complaints about lag, and Ping,   There is even a “All Aussies are criminals thread..”  guild recruitments and players looking for guilds  threads are just starting..  now this is in addition to our realm forums

I would have rather seen Server Specific guild recruitment forums,  not another place for random discussion.

Another Blizzard social experiment..?  Lets see what they do with it,  who will be the trolls that we love and hate on this forum,  will the regulars from the realm forums try and assert their trollness onto these forums? Who will start the  ” This is not a guild recruitment Forum.. ”  thread.

 It seems an odd thing to do..  unless we are getting more local servers…   – Please ! Pretty please with Vegimite, and Toast on top,  with Pavalova, and Kangaroos in the top Paddock..  Please or we will send a drop bear from the gumtrees to get you….   ( Jokes..   the drop bears aren’t dangerous!  )

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