RPG Trader's Blog

World of WarCraft Lead Producer, Jeffrey Kaplan, will now head up development of Blizzard’s next MMO:

I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I’ve switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO. World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who’ve shared this amazing experience with us so far. Also, while I have served as the spokesperson and Game Director for World of Warcraft on Wrath of the Lich King, by no means would WoW be where it is today without the dedicated team that we have in place. The WoW development team is comprised of some of the most talented and experienced game developers in the world, and it was an absolute honor to serve amongst them, and they will continue to make WoW better than ever. I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we’re lucky to have shared in your journey. And as always, I’ll still be lurking on the forums and in the game. Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honor.

StarCraft II in 2009, Diablo III in 2010, Unannounced Blizzard MMO in 2011?

News, World of Warcraft

A primary school teacher has been jailed for 12 months after she admitted sending a 14-year-old boy “crude and explicit” text messages.

Lynn Walls, 42, sent sexually explicit texts then came to rely on her young victim emotionally, even lying to say that she had breast cancer.

The offending caused lasting damage, Newcastle Crown Court heard, as the schoolboy came to feel withdrawn, guilty and even suicidal.

They first made contact on the World of Warcraft internet game after the plump defendant invented a “thin, attractive and blonde” character. After chatting online, they swapped mobile phone numbers, the court heard. Crucially, the London teenager told Walls his age, said Penny Moreland, prosecuting.

Walls sent texts inviting the boy to have sex with her, and commit sex acts. In other texts, Walls confided childhood problems, falsely claimed to have breast cancer, and confessed she loved him. Miss Moreland said the victim felt guilty as a result, and struggled to cope, being only 14.

The boy’s mother made a Victim Impact Statement in which she said the child, now 15, had changed dramatically since the offences in November 2007.

Miss Moreland said he had expressed suicidal thoughts, was abusive and had a “phobia of people”. His school attendance had deteriorated, and he was considering leaving when he turns 16. He and his family were being counselled as a result.

Walls, of Rose Street, Penshaw, Wearside, was a primary school teacher in Co Durham, and has a son herself. Judge Richard Lowden banned her from working with children for life, and put her on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.

At a previous hearing she admitted one count of enticing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Nick Peacock, defending, said his client accepted full responsibility. The case had “destroyed her days and haunted her nights” since her arrest, Mr Peacock said, and she accepted she was virtually “unemployable”.

News, World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has its share of online gamers who find comfort in griefing, or profiting by selling valuable items or gold. They do get caught, and their accounts banned. This video by JERorly shows anyone who breaks the rules suffers the same consequences. And, yes, even Hitler.

World of Warcraft

More than 100,000 folks seem to think so. That is how many copies have been sold of a computer program called Glider, which essentially plays the game World of Warcraft for you. While you sleep, eat, go to work, attend class or do whatever else, Glider controls your WOW character — killing monsters, casting spells, collecting treasure and accumulating the experience points required to advance and become more powerful.

Of the 11 million people who play World of Warcraft, most do so legitimately; they actually play the game themselves. The whole point of a massively multiplayer online game like WOW or EverQuest is that players can take pride that their virtual accomplishments and wealth reflect real human effort, determination, ingenuity and skill. Even though I haven’t played WOW regularly in more than a year, I’ve still racked up thousands of hours in that world since 2004. To have the few unscrupulous players use a “bot” program like Glider makes a mockery of that effort and contributes to ruining the entertainment experience for me and everyone else.

But should creating and selling a program like Glider be illegal?

Read more…

World of Warcraft

According to Edge-Online, World of Warcraft made up half of Activision Blizzard’s earnings last year:

Arvind Bhatia with Stern Agee said in a Wednesday research note that he expects WoW subscriptions amounted to earnings per share of about 30 cents out of a total 60 cents, or around $400 million total, in the fiscal year ended in December.

In December, Blizzard announced that WoW currently boasts 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.

That means that Wow makes as much money as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and the rest of Activision’s franchises and games combined. So if you’re ever wondering why companies keep creating new MMOs to challenge Warcraft, there’s your answer. There’s a lot of money in it.

News, World of Warcraft

WOTLK had made its big debut yesterday. In less than a day there has been reported players of hitting 80 already. That’s quite unbelievable timing. WOTLK includes some of the newest featured in MMOs, including world events, the new death knight class, inscription tradeskill, and much more. The price of this expansion was fairly priced at $34.99 USD. We hope to see more fans prowling through the next 10 level. Good luck.

World of Warcraft

The Lich King invades stores on November 13th, 2008! Retailers throughout the world are accepting reservations now for the next epic chapter in the World of Warcraft experience – Wrath of the Lich King.

News, World of Warcraft

Looks like Warhammer has really put a dent into World of Warcraft subscriber base. EA Mythic has already sold over 1.5 million copies to retailers in North America, Europe and Oceania. That is even before the official release of the game. This has been by far the largest amount of copies sold pre release. Not to mention WAR will be going to more than just those 3 regions listed, don’t forget Russue, Japan, Taiwan, and China are joining the WAR in early 2009. We are looking for a population not too far from World of Warcrafts current 10 million population. We believe Warhammer will have a very good chance to take down WoW.

News, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft

The blogosphere is abuzz with recent revelation that the United States Federal Government is spending our tax dollars to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games. That’s right, that undead priest that just healed you could be a Fed.

A blog on Wired by Ryan Singel broke the story on February 22, 2008, (U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft) and it has been repeated around the blogosphere ever since. I first saw it on TechRepublic’s sister Web site, Gamespot. It is called the Reynard Project.

Now, heaven knows, the U.S. Federal Government is no slouch when it comes to wasting tax dollars, but when I first saw this I took it to be a hoax. But it is not a hoax — although the government should quickly claim it is to save face.

Here is the pertinent excerpt from the data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence:

• The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.
• If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.

Now, come on — this can’t be real can it?

News, World of Warcraft

ON Networks is a provider of online TV. It is one of the largest networks available today and it now features World of Warcraft on one of their many fine programs. On Warcraft is hosted by Arwen Lietz and Marc Majcher who will bring you some of best tips you can find on the net. What makes it so perfect is that their content is in video format. They explain things in full details and will go through many instances and dungeons to help you trash out the mobs and bring you some of the best loot you can get in the game. Explore many new strategies and techniques and become a World of Warcraft pro. They provide standard videos and high quality for viewers with fast connections.

News, World of Warcraft videos, World of Warcraft, wow