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And what if the userbase isn't made up of entirely adults? This is wow we are talking about. I bet their are millions of minors who play.

Since this is Slashdot, I'm 100% sure you didn't read any comments posted prior to yours. Two words: Parental Controls. https://us.battle.net/account/parental-controls/index.html?rhtml=y

Yeah, that's pretty much what's going to happen. It's just one more thing for them to be paranoid about.

The woman who I used to hang out with back in EQ was very popular and had many stalkers. That was partially her fault, of course, but we had to run up walls, break clipping on some objects and do other crazy shenanigans just to get around the creepers. One guy who found us actually threatened me while she was away and then upon her return tried to tell her that *I* was saying threats and being the freak! "Creeper" is a very good term for these types.

She showed me a few times what happened when she removed /anon by telling me which names to watch out for. It was creepy to watch so I can imagine what it's like to be the focus of that kind of... attention. We both promptly went /anon after that and ported back to our bind spots.

To say "it's optional!" in this case is nuts. The information on this page: http://us.battle.net/realid/?rhtml=y is particularly disturbing.

For expressing your opinion:

US SC2 Thread:
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041 (337 posts atm)

US Forums Thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1 (4517 posts atm)

EU Forums Thread:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13816838128 (858 posts atm)

Oh, I don't know. Maybe he could point out that in-game grief has resulted in the deaths of real people? Everyone knows kdawson has (serious) editing flaws, but it doesn't require any "spin" to make this look like a terrible decision on Blizzard's part.

Many people were upset with regards to Real ID on the Starcraft 2 forums during the previous phase of the beta [1] [2]. Of course, most people are not happy with the general direction Blizzard is taking Battle.net -- automatic Facebook integration, Real ID, and now this. I should be able to play an online game without telling everybody who I am and where I live. The best part of this whole thing is that Blizzard has given absolutely no justification for this incredible erosion of privacy and anonymity. All they do is babble buzzwords about "social network integration".

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. For most people, the Internet is not one of those places.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe he could point out that in-game grief has resulted in the deaths of real people? Everyone knows kdawson has (serious) editing flaws, but it doesn't require any "spin" to make this look like a terrible decision on Blizzard's part.

Many people were upset with regards to Real ID on the Starcraft 2 forums during the previous phase of the beta [1] [2]. Of course, most people are not happy with the general direction Blizzard is taking Battle.net -- automatic Facebook integration, Real ID, and now this. I should be able to play an online game without telling everybody who I am and where I live. The best part of this whole thing is that Blizzard has given absolutely no justification for this incredible erosion of privacy and anonymity. All they do is babble buzzwords about "social network integration".

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. For most people, the Internet is not one of those places.

I made a post about this on the battlenet forums. Please see: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24702391055&sid=5010 In a LAN party, the weakest link is almost always the broadband connection. My link describes a recent international tournament held in China which was ruined because of remote Battlenet hosting. It had nothing to do with Battlenet itself being unstable at the time. It was the ISP and that is beyond the control of the organiser or Blizzard for that matter. Note that the Warcraft 3 tournament went off without a hitch. It's a much older Blizzard game which DOES have LAN support. Removing LAN support is a HUGE problem for tournaments.

You mean like this?

If you actually read the beta forums instead of reading a bunch of whiny noob posts... there isn't a severe balance issue... http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24630604051&sid=3000&pageNo=1#4

Unless their matchmaking servers fill my dating needs too. :)

Blizzard has got you covered: http://us.battle.net/matchmaking.html

You know, a 15 second Google search would have turned up the results: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24630623195&sid=5000

**cough** battle.net marketplace... http://us.battle.net/faq/index.html

According to the beta FAQ, the Mac version is coming:

Will there be a Mac version of the beta client?
We plan to release a Mac version of the beta client at some point during the beta test period. We’ll have further details to share as the beta test progresses.

via the beta FAQ.

>>Nokia can borrow a lot more then Apple seeing as it can back up its debts with real assets rather then IP (which isn't worth anything as collateral).

"Real" assets? The 19th century called and they want their economic model back. You most certainly can raise money against IP. Doesn't this whole topic revolve around the strength of the respective IP portfolios of Nokia and Apple?

>>Market Cap is built upon the almighty Imaginary Dollar (!$)

Whoa, strong argument there. Here's a clue, there is no such thing as intrinsic value--all value is market value. The value of your Euros, gold, zloty, or wampum, assuming you have any, is just as "Imaginary".

>>In addition to this, Nokia already has the experience and expertise.

What does this even mean?

Let's look at your original arguments, shall we.

>>Apple are not known for winning a lot of law suits

Citation? Compared to Nokia? And since each case is specific to the facts, how is this even relevant?

>>Nokia has expert legal teams in every major western nation

As does every single international corporation, including Apple, whether inhouse or outside counsel. Relevance?

>>more capital and more liquid assets

Not significantly more than Apple, even by your 2008 numbers. And, do you think that either company, let alone their shareholders, will really allow a significant fraction of their assets to be spent on such a fight? Well, apparently you do. Maybe it will come down to who can borrow the most after their tens of billions in cash are depleted.

>>Nokia is significantly bigger and richer then apple, roughly by about 4 times. ...Apple may be able to swing a log but Nokia can drop an entire forest.

The numbers you provided are roughly equivalent, in any case none being anywhere near 4 times greater for Nokia than Apple.

In fact, the only number I can find where Nokia is about 4 times greater than Apple is in number of employees (123,347 vs 34,300). Are you suggesting that in a battle between international companies over IP, headcount is a significant factor? Will Nokia be employing the "footman rush"? http://classic.battle.net/war2/water/plan.shtml

>>So if no one is clearly right, he with the most money and lawyers wins

I forwarded your detailed analysis to Apple's legal team who are now crying in their mums' skirts. The tyrant Jobs will issue a public surrender forthwith. Also, grateful king Nokia will be issuing you lands in the north and estates in the south.

I think they would prefer to play some other race...

(Honestly though, this is a non-story: Several government department have partially overlapping areas of control so they argue about which one has the control on those areas. Those things happen a lot, especially with the internet and other new technology. In other areas those fights have already been settled a century or so ago.)

Captcha: Sawtooth

That's just FUD, one needs to know both the username and password to merge a WoW account onto a Battle.net account. If you don't believe me, then try it yourself: https://us.battle.net/account/

Additionally, the parent poster is in denial, *somehow* his account was compromised. Online compromised account problems are not exclusive to WoW, many other online services, including banking have the same problem, I can't guess how his account was compromised, common ways though are:
- Account sharing with a "friend"
- Someone works out your SQ/A / CD Key (with this they can change your email address)
- Someone close to them got hold of his CD key and knew his
- Use of common username and password between services, like maybe he uses the same accountname and password on a forum? Sometimes users use the same wow account name as their MSN name, and of course the person already knows your email if you are on MSN messenger, and then they just need to go through about 5 favourite colours.
- Then the others, like phishing and trojans.

He may vehemontly deny that it could be any of these and it *must* be a fault of Blizzard, but the fact is that something he did, allowed his account to be compromised, independant of Blizzard.

Another added fact, paid character transfers require you to... pay! Based on this, although I can't be sure without more information, it was likely related to account trading and/or sharing. Yet another reason not to trade accounts, as you can never rename your owner name on the account, and nothing you can do can ever stop the original owner from randomly phoning Blizzard and reclaiming it, despite it being you having spent the last 6 months getting the best gear in the game while paying the subscription.

Obviously I can't prove that I am in fact actually very qualified on this subject, but you will see my post makes perfect sense for someone who deals with these kinds of issues every day.

Next thing you know, they stand on their hind legs and take up polearms.

There are a lot of people who seem to think that posting on Slashdot, and modding the posts, is the way to get Blizzard to make changes. The venue you're looking for is here:

http://forums.battle.net/board.html?forumId=12009&sid=3000

As mentioned by Rob Pardo in interviews, piracy is a serious problem and often times tie in closely with LAN. At the end of the day, we want the best for the community and fans that support our games, and having chunk of the community pirate the game actually hurts the community.

1) Pirated servers splinter the community instead of consolidating all players who love to play the game. Battle.net will bring players together in skirmishes, ladder play, custom games, and allow everyone the opportunity to share a common experience.

2) More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. The original StarCraft is an even better example of how 11 years later, players still love and play this title, and we will continue to support and evolve it with patches.

We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better.

If I were to buy StarCraft II or any other title, I know the money I spent would be going to supporting that title. Personally, I would be upset that others were freeloading while others are legitimately supporting a title that has great potential and goals of making this title have 'long legs.'

If you like a song a lot, buy it, and that artist will only come out with more awesome songs for you. If you like a game, buy it, and we will promise to constantly work to make the player experience better at every corner we can.

Support the causes you believe in (This is applicable to all things, not just gaming).

Don't be a leech to society, innovation, and further awesome creations.

Bolding is his.

Just register a Battle.net account. There you can enter the cd-key and get a download link.

https://us.battle.net/

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/quests/cow.shtml The cow level was hilarious. I still break out laughing sometimes just thinking about it.

Starcraft ALREADY did this...

http://www.battle.net/scc/faq/multi.shtml

"Just what is "Team" play?
Team games add a whole new level to cooperative play. Set before the game starts, a Team is effectively one side controlled by two or more players. Resources, technologies, and vision are all shared by the Team members, who don't have to play the same species. Unit control is also shared-- units that are currently selected by your teammates are marked so that you won't accidentally override your teammate's orders. "

Call to Arms is a runeword'd sword she could be using on switch. In fact, characters of many classes do.

I know it's not quite what you're asking for, but you can indeed have a sorceress running around casting a low level battle orders and whatnot.

Call To Arms 5 Socket Weapons Amn + Ral + Mal + Ist + Ohm
+1 To All Skills
+40% Increased Attack Speed
+250-290% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
7% Life Stolen Per Hit
+2-6 To Battle Command (varies)*
+1-6 To Battle Orders (varies)*
+1-4 To Battle Cry (varies)*
Prevent Monster Heal
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Well, you *can* have a sorceress in Diablo 2 using a sword. In fact, there are swords that are made specifically for spellcasters to use. The act 3 mercenaries are sword/shield and magic(though they very very rarely actually HIT anything with their sword).

The problem with this is that typically wizards/etc need to learn *how* to do all the crazy physics-defying things they do. That apparently takes time effort and money, leaving your character with much less time to devote to lifting very heavy things, running quite a bit and learning the best way to stab someone with an oversized knife.
So you'd expect they'd be kinda crummy at both.

Diablo 2 still lets you do that if you want, it just doesn't expect you to be as powerful as a pure frozen orb/meteor sorc or a pure fighter.
Sorceress' can hit things with their swords like Hexfire, having buffed themselves with enchant and with energy shield.

Druids can run around shapeshifted into a werewolf form, clawing and biting things all the while calling down Armageddon. Of course, the number of skill point you need to expend in order to be really good at both is very high, but you *can* do it...

Well, you *can* have a sorceress in Diablo 2 using a sword. In fact, there are swords that are made specifically for spellcasters to use. The act 3 mercenaries are sword/shield and magic(though they very very rarely actually HIT anything with their sword).

The problem with this is that typically wizards/etc need to learn *how* to do all the crazy physics-defying things they do. That apparently takes time effort and money, leaving your character with much less time to devote to lifting very heavy things, running quite a bit and learning the best way to stab someone with an oversized knife.
So you'd expect they'd be kinda crummy at both.

Diablo 2 still lets you do that if you want, it just doesn't expect you to be as powerful as a pure frozen orb/meteor sorc or a pure fighter.
Sorceress' can hit things with their swords like Hexfire, having buffed themselves with enchant and with energy shield.

Druids can run around shapeshifted into a werewolf form, clawing and biting things all the while calling down Armageddon. Of course, the number of skill point you need to expend in order to be really good at both is very high, but you *can* do it...

Well, you *can* have a sorceress in Diablo 2 using a sword. In fact, there are swords that are made specifically for spellcasters to use. The act 3 mercenaries are sword/shield and magic(though they very very rarely actually HIT anything with their sword).

The problem with this is that typically wizards/etc need to learn *how* to do all the crazy physics-defying things they do. That apparently takes time effort and money, leaving your character with much less time to devote to lifting very heavy things, running quite a bit and learning the best way to stab someone with an oversized knife.
So you'd expect they'd be kinda crummy at both.

Diablo 2 still lets you do that if you want, it just doesn't expect you to be as powerful as a pure frozen orb/meteor sorc or a pure fighter.
Sorceress' can hit things with their swords like Hexfire, having buffed themselves with enchant and with energy shield.

Druids can run around shapeshifted into a werewolf form, clawing and biting things all the while calling down Armageddon. Of course, the number of skill point you need to expend in order to be really good at both is very high, but you *can* do it...

Well, you *can* have a sorceress in Diablo 2 using a sword. In fact, there are swords that are made specifically for spellcasters to use. The act 3 mercenaries are sword/shield and magic(though they very very rarely actually HIT anything with their sword).

The problem with this is that typically wizards/etc need to learn *how* to do all the crazy physics-defying things they do. That apparently takes time effort and money, leaving your character with much less time to devote to lifting very heavy things, running quite a bit and learning the best way to stab someone with an oversized knife.
So you'd expect they'd be kinda crummy at both.

Diablo 2 still lets you do that if you want, it just doesn't expect you to be as powerful as a pure frozen orb/meteor sorc or a pure fighter.
Sorceress' can hit things with their swords like Hexfire, having buffed themselves with enchant and with energy shield.

Druids can run around shapeshifted into a werewolf form, clawing and biting things all the while calling down Armageddon. Of course, the number of skill point you need to expend in order to be really good at both is very high, but you *can* do it...

Ziggurat?

Even the gameplay movie they have up on their site (from E3) only shows monsters dropping orbs when they die. The way it currently looks, bosses have certain attacks and you need to run around a lot and avoid them and pick up orbs dropped by previously beaten monsters.

Back to listening to "Town" and "Tristram" by Matt Uelmen on B-net mp3 player - brings back memories (always did like the Bauhaus [specifically the end of Mask] sound of those tracks with the 12 string - all the new stuff released so far for Diablo 3 sounds more Dead Can Dance, but some of the earlier tracks also sounded like DCD).

Indeed, this seems like a rather desperate call for attention. Besides, everybody knows that the Dark Templar are far more powerful.

Guys, I wrote to Blizz begging for GNU/Linux port for D3 and they said they can't take such suggestions legally by mail. Ya ya, I know. :o)

So lets all write to them on that forum, flood it, lets show some hands! Someone has already posted there suggesting a Wine-focused solution. Whether you are for that or native, make sure to write!

URL: http://www.battle.net/forums/board.aspx?fn=suggestions

Forwaaaard!! :P

I used the contact form and got a reply that the company was legally restricted from taking suggestions via email. The CSR suggested I post my ideas at the battle.net suggestions forum for D2:http://www.battle.net/forums/board.aspx?ForumName=suggestions. Sure enough, there are a couple of threads there with suggestions for D3. I figure something like this could take the form of a petition. I don't have the credentials at the moment to login to post on the forum. Sadly, I'm considering buying D2 again since I can't find mine. Or I could keep looking. It's sad, really :)

You've never been able to harm party members in Diablo II. Are you thinking of a different game?

Ummmmmm. Ever heard of Battle.net? Apparently there is a huge community of online StarCraft, WarCraft, and Diablo series players. StarCraft came out in 1998. According to GameSpy, the original Counter-Strike currently has 33097 servers and 79928 players. Counterstrike 1.0 was release in 2000.

Based on that, I'd say that a good multiplayer game will have online playability for at least 10 years. That is a pretty decent amount of time for hardware to catch up.

Zealots don't wear hats.

I posed this question when the Starcraft No-CD patch came out: What is Blizzard's motivation?

My hypothesis was that it was going to be part of a promotion for Starcraft II. Make original Starcraft a download for cheap or free to bring back old players and introduce new ones. As a map maker, the influx of players would be exciting.

But the more likely explanation is that the Mac Book Air was just released and has no CD drive. Blizzard is good at supporting Macs and keeping old games playable, so this is probably just a continuation of that policy.

Agreed, Matt Uelmen was simply brilliant. The full archive of Diablo2's soundtrack has been available for a while at http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/mp3/ - the Tristram soundtrack is also available there.

To explain this further, in Warcraft II, Death Knights were the Horde equivalent to the Alliance Mages.

To explain this further, in Warcraft II, Death Knights were the Horde equivalent to the Alliance Mages.

Strange, I thought that the correct name for the battlefield weapon would be Yamoto gun. Are we sure there is no typo ?

Nah... that's a specious arguement. Some of us still enjoy puzzling out cute little puzzles that make their way into games, but the only games where you find those are RPGs. Puzzle games have become a niche genre, and there are people claiming adventure games are pretty much extinct. So RPGs, themselves pretty rare, are the only place to find good puzzles to boggle the mind for a bit. And sure, I could look up the answers to say, the Korriban puzzles on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but I could just as easily hit up the interweb for cheats for any other game. Evil demons got you down in Doom? Haitians and Cubans got you on the run? Need help putting those Orcs and Tauren in their place? There's even cheats for sports games, but I don't know why you'd want to cheat those...

The bottom line is that puzzles will be enjoyed by those who like puzzles. You can cheat puzzles as easily as cheating anything else in the game and I'm sure there are plenty who do.

Sorry, close, but wrong!
That's the Spider Mines, dropped by Terran Vultures. http://www.battle.net/scc/terran/uv.shtml

Scarabs are fired by Protoss Reavers. http://www.battle.net/scc/protoss/units/reaver.sht ml

Sorry, close, but wrong!
That's the Spider Mines, dropped by Terran Vultures. http://www.battle.net/scc/terran/uv.shtml

Scarabs are fired by Protoss Reavers. http://www.battle.net/scc/protoss/units/reaver.sht ml

I do believe the Protoss Dragoons say the line "Our enemies are legion" if clicked on several times.

Actually the parent is right.

On April 1st there was a big announcement on Blizzard's site about World of Starcraft. It's no longer on the site or the archives however. They did this complete with screenshots too...

The last April Fools joke that I remember comming from them was the new Warcraft 3 playable race, the Pandarian Army

Why /. is running April Fools jokes as news escapes me...

Oh, like this kind of lair?

Eh? Doom beatable?

In single player mode, perhaps, and even then only if you are a "consumer" (ie, you only play what you can purhase, instead of creating your own add-ons, map builders and map themselves). But if you add in deathmatch, you'll get open-endness that far exceeds Diablo 2.
And I'm speaking from own experience - ~3000 hours wasted for Doom.

Still, that's nothing compared with MUDding. 4500 hours on mortal (player) chars and 3000h of coding here. Beat the openness of _that_.

In the long term, Diablo provides you with nothing more than random drops from a preset list. The thrill there can last for several months, but it's not really an addiction you can keep for years.

But hey... note that the average member of the society spends 8-10 hours a day mindlessly watching TV. Collecting uniques and set items is some form of activity, it surely beats staring at the TV set or standing in a gate and guzzling beer.

The horde gets the blood elves, but alliance isn't announced yet.

Rumor has it that they wanted to put the Pandaren in, but are afraid of the reaction of the Chinese to a bunch of people going around killing pandas.

Was it just me, or did anyone else read that as a Scaled Composites Protoss Carrier aircraft? I guess we better start building our Science Vessels!

Was it just me, or did anyone else read that as a Scaled Composites Protoss Carrier aircraft? I guess we better start building our Science Vessels!

And what do you call those spinning things to measure airspeed? The ones with four arms with little hemispheric "cups" that catch the wind. KnowwhatImeanVerne?