Slashdot Mirror

Ultra Magnus writes "Looks like Blizzard is releasing an expansion pack to WC3. I've always been pleased with their expansions before, so I hope this lives up to expectations."

VonGuard writes "Ahoy hoy! I've written a new article for the East Bay Express about the rise of the PC Baang in the Northern California Bay Area. While in Korea, Starcraft is still the most popular Baang game, here in the US, Counter-Strike reigns supreme. Are these to be the malt shops and arcades of our time?"

Unknown Relic writes "While far from confirmed, it is reported that Microsoft is seriously looking into buying, or may have already bought, Vivendi's Games Division. For those who aren't aware, Vivendi owns several prominent gaming companies, including Valve and Blizzard! While no official announcements have been made, one is apparently expected soon. While this would doubtlessly be a great boon to Xbox's library, it could be a shock to other consoles as titles which were originally planned for a diverse release become Xbox exclusives."

Bobartig writes "Blizzard Entertainment has put up gameplay trailers for their upcoming console title, Starcraft: Ghost. It looks hot. It's available both in both Quicktime and DivX, with plenty of mirrors."

Bobartig writes "Blizzard Entertainment has put up gameplay trailers for their upcoming console title, Starcraft: Ghost. It looks hot. It's available both in both Quicktime and DivX, with plenty of mirrors."

Bobartig writes "Blizzard Entertainment has put up gameplay trailers for their upcoming console title, Starcraft: Ghost. It looks hot. It's available both in both Quicktime and DivX, with plenty of mirrors."

About a zillion readers wrote in to tell us about all the commotion over at the Blizzard site. Following a countdown, they've announced the latest Starcraft game, Starcraft: Ghost. Note that this game will be console-only, and the FAQ is very adamant that this is not a Starcraft 2.

About a zillion readers wrote in to tell us about all the commotion over at the Blizzard site. Following a countdown, they've announced the latest Starcraft game, Starcraft: Ghost. Note that this game will be console-only, and the FAQ is very adamant that this is not a Starcraft 2.

About a zillion readers wrote in to tell us about all the commotion over at the Blizzard site. Following a countdown, they've announced the latest Starcraft game, Starcraft: Ghost. Note that this game will be console-only, and the FAQ is very adamant that this is not a Starcraft 2.

About a zillion readers wrote in to tell us about all the commotion over at the Blizzard site. Following a countdown, they've announced the latest Starcraft game, Starcraft: Ghost. Note that this game will be console-only, and the FAQ is very adamant that this is not a Starcraft 2.

Slashback tonight with more on Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers, specifically), various ongoing court battles, the true color of the universe, and more. Read on for the details.

All I'm certain of is my true love's hair. CompaniaHill writes: "As previously reported on /., first they though it was turquoise. Then they found an error in their early calculations, and announced it was really beige. But doubts lingered, and color experts pointed out that an objective color as viewed from the theoretical blackness of space would appear different when viewed on Earth in typical daylight. So adjustments were made, and calculations were revised and rechecked by color scientists Michael Brill of McClendon Automation Inc. and Mark Fairchild of the Munsell Color Science Laboratories. And now, at last, Ivan Baldry and Karl Glazebrook, astronomers at Johns Hopkins University, using spectral data from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, have announced the final result: The universe is decidedly salmon. Really."

The milestones are getting closer together. Dare Obasanjo writes: "Xindice (http://xml.apache.org/xindice), the Apache native XML database has finally reached version 1.0. Xindice used to be called dbXML and was mentioned in my article on XML and databases."

Three From the Courts TheFrood writes: "It looks as though the battle between Blizzard and bnetd (as reported in previous stories here(1), here(2), and here(3))is heating up. Vivendi has sent another letter to the EFF, which has wasted no time responding."

ElitusPrime writes with an update in the strange case of Ken Hamidi, the Intel employee whose mass-mail to Intel employees brought charges of trespassing. Now the California Supreme Court may take another look at the case. Says ElitusPrime: "If this guy is put in jail, I can think of more then a few other spammers that need to go up the creek with him..."

In a very different case, pagan26 writes: "It seem that DMCA will have its day in court. With ElmcoSoft."

Well, at least you can trust their word, right? Masem writes: "According to MSNBC, the developers of the spyware program WinWhatWhere will no longer have their install program trample the bits of anti-spyware programs, after word broke that this behavior was occurring. However, no word has been made by a similar spyware program developed by SpectreSoft that does similar damage."

I will fork out to see this, happily. Pingsmoth writes "It looks like the faithful fans of Peter Jackson and Tolkien will be able to catch a glimpse of The Two Towers this Saturday. Lordoftherings.net is reporting, through a video of Peter Jackson, that a preview (read: not a trailer) of The Two Towers will be shown in theatres this Saturday, presumably attached to The Fellowship of the Ring. Maybe at the end? At any rate, it looks like I'll be seeing the film at least seven times now, and it's a good thing I got a morning shift tomorrow." For a more colorful description of this 4-minute tease, check out Ain't it Cool News' version.

soquelraj writes "Blizzard has released the long awaited patch they promised three months ago at MacWorld SF 2002 to allow Diablo II and Diablo II LoD to run native on Mac OS X. This was the last reason I was booting into Mac OS 9 for any reason (I could never stand not having direct access to my video hardware running the game via Classic). The performance (at least on the first quick spin I took tonight after downloading) under OpenGL looks to be much smoother than anything previous -- but regardless, this makes my Mac OS X experience complete."

Robo writes: "Slashdot was lucky enough to get a beta copy of Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. So, CmdrTaco and Hemos locked me up inside a closet and forced me to play for the last week. The beta of Warcraft III is impressive, to say the least. Blizzard is going to outdo themselves again when Warcraft III hits the selves in June 2002. Read on for my review."

Warcraft III runs on Windows 95/98/2000/NT and Mac OS. My setup was easy as pie, which was surprising since I run WinXP. And, on a side note, I was running it on a LCD screen and had no problem. Blizzard has an effective video setup that allows you to customize the game to match your hardware by changing the resolution, model detail, animation quality, texture quality, particles, and lights. This is especially helpful if you're running on an older machine and still want your game to run fast. The sound setup even allows you to have Dolby Surround!

I'm always disappointed that Blizzard's betas only let you play multiplayer, but that's life. In multiplayer mode, I found my abilities only let me get about 30 minutes into the game before I was demolished by the hard-core players. Maybe it was me, but Warcraft III seemed to have a faster pace than the previous two releases. The pace is a double-edged sword, because some players like their video games to be fast paced while others like to take their time. I think Warcraft II is somewhere in between Urban Terror and Civilization III. So, until I can take it low and play in a single player campaign mode, I'm counting the days until Blizzard releases Warcraft III 1.0.

Most important, if you're looking forward to the game, be assured: the gameplay is cool. This time you have a choice between four races: Human, Undead, Orc, or Dark Elf. Your race really doesn't matter in multiplayer mode; winning basically comes down to building everything up quickly and creating a massive army with which to crush your opponents. Or in my case, getting crushed.

This is where one of my favorite features comes into play. When enemies are attacking you (or your allies), the map flashes, letting you know that there is a throwdown and you should send in backup. Features I'm looking forward to in the upcoming release include: LAN games (five laptops, five six-packs, you know the drill), the single-player campaign, map editors, and polished cinematics. I realize that cinematics may not really be a game feature, but I can down a tub of popcorn when I'm watching Blizzard's cinematics, they're just that cool.

Warcraft III gives new meaning to strategy RPGs. If you like to play pure strategy games where your only goal is to be the last one standing, this game is for you. If you like games where you can take a character, build him up, and watch the character grow over the life of the game, this game is for you. Warcraft III is a successful cross between the two genres. You can build your basic Orc Grunts and go fight the enemy, but you can also build Heroes. Each class has different Heroes with which you can gain experience, attain new levels, and learn new skills. Warcraft III even lets you carry around an inventory!

I think the biggest improvement that Warcraft III has over its predecessors is Blizzard's ever more impressive graphics. With a decent video card, the graphics are crisp and clear. Nowadays, 3D is the name of the game, and Blizzard again comes a step closer to reality with this strategy role-playing game.

Robo writes: "Slashdot was lucky enough to get a beta copy of Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. So, CmdrTaco and Hemos locked me up inside a closet and forced me to play for the last week. The beta of Warcraft III is impressive, to say the least. Blizzard is going to outdo themselves again when Warcraft III hits the selves in June 2002. Read on for my review."

Warcraft III runs on Windows 95/98/2000/NT and Mac OS. My setup was easy as pie, which was surprising since I run WinXP. And, on a side note, I was running it on a LCD screen and had no problem. Blizzard has an effective video setup that allows you to customize the game to match your hardware by changing the resolution, model detail, animation quality, texture quality, particles, and lights. This is especially helpful if you're running on an older machine and still want your game to run fast. The sound setup even allows you to have Dolby Surround!

I'm always disappointed that Blizzard's betas only let you play multiplayer, but that's life. In multiplayer mode, I found my abilities only let me get about 30 minutes into the game before I was demolished by the hard-core players. Maybe it was me, but Warcraft III seemed to have a faster pace than the previous two releases. The pace is a double-edged sword, because some players like their video games to be fast paced while others like to take their time. I think Warcraft II is somewhere in between Urban Terror and Civilization III. So, until I can take it low and play in a single player campaign mode, I'm counting the days until Blizzard releases Warcraft III 1.0.

Most important, if you're looking forward to the game, be assured: the gameplay is cool. This time you have a choice between four races: Human, Undead, Orc, or Dark Elf. Your race really doesn't matter in multiplayer mode; winning basically comes down to building everything up quickly and creating a massive army with which to crush your opponents. Or in my case, getting crushed.

This is where one of my favorite features comes into play. When enemies are attacking you (or your allies), the map flashes, letting you know that there is a throwdown and you should send in backup. Features I'm looking forward to in the upcoming release include: LAN games (five laptops, five six-packs, you know the drill), the single-player campaign, map editors, and polished cinematics. I realize that cinematics may not really be a game feature, but I can down a tub of popcorn when I'm watching Blizzard's cinematics, they're just that cool.

Warcraft III gives new meaning to strategy RPGs. If you like to play pure strategy games where your only goal is to be the last one standing, this game is for you. If you like games where you can take a character, build him up, and watch the character grow over the life of the game, this game is for you. Warcraft III is a successful cross between the two genres. You can build your basic Orc Grunts and go fight the enemy, but you can also build Heroes. Each class has different Heroes with which you can gain experience, attain new levels, and learn new skills. Warcraft III even lets you carry around an inventory!

I think the biggest improvement that Warcraft III has over its predecessors is Blizzard's ever more impressive graphics. With a decent video card, the graphics are crisp and clear. Nowadays, 3D is the name of the game, and Blizzard again comes a step closer to reality with this strategy role-playing game.

Alcachofo writes "Blizzard Entertainment has announced the long waited Beta Sign-Ups for their newest game: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Individuals residing in the USA or Canada will be able to register for a chance to be one of the 5,000 players chosen. The beta signup is scheduled for a 24-hour period, beginning on January 7th at 11:00 p.m (GMT -8) and ending on January 8th at 11:00 p.m (GMT -8)." I couldn't even count the number of great hours of fun WC2 provided us back in the day. What an absolute classic. I wonder if WC3 will be reboot worthy.

Alcachofo writes "Blizzard Entertainment has announced the long waited Beta Sign-Ups for their newest game: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Individuals residing in the USA or Canada will be able to register for a chance to be one of the 5,000 players chosen. The beta signup is scheduled for a 24-hour period, beginning on January 7th at 11:00 p.m (GMT -8) and ending on January 8th at 11:00 p.m (GMT -8)." I couldn't even count the number of great hours of fun WC2 provided us back in the day. What an absolute classic. I wonder if WC3 will be reboot worthy.

KaB0b0 asks: "Many people I know play primarily RPGs and 'Strategy Games' in their free time (and even sometimes when they're pressed for time). But this arises a question. Is there really any such thing as a 'Strategy Game'? Most of my enemies online seem to think 'build a lot of troops, attack early' is a good strategy for their gaming advantage. In fact, you'd be very hardpressed to find someone who uses actualy tactics in a strategy game." Of course, most RTS games are vastly oversimplified which allows this type of "blitz" game. If games had the concept of supply lines, morale, and other such ignored aspects of battle mechanics, then maybe this would be different. Turn-based strategy games, also suffer from this to an extent, however it's less of a problem there. If you were to create a strategy game with real strategy, what would you implement?

"Take, for instance, StarCraft. The last time I played with someone actually used a strategy besides simply building a lot of medium units and some large units and then sent them all as soon as possible was.. well, never. What could a game developer do in order to insure actual use of strategy in a game intended for it? I realize there's always going to be people who play the game so they can get a good record for some stupid reason, but how can you actually make a game for the real strategist?"

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Blizzard Entertainment makers of the enormously popular Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series, have announced their next game: World of Warcraft, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game set in the famous Warcraft universe. Gamespot has an extensive preview available complete with screens and loads of info on the game." It looks very pretty. I still want the Star Wars MMORPG to rock my world tho.

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Blizzard Entertainment makers of the enormously popular Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series, have announced their next game: World of Warcraft, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game set in the famous Warcraft universe. Gamespot has an extensive preview available complete with screens and loads of info on the game." It looks very pretty. I still want the Star Wars MMORPG to rock my world tho.

Thomas M Hughes writes "Blizzard said a few weeks ago that Warcraft 3 won't be ready in 2001. While Blizzard has never been good at meeting its release deadlines, usually its a good idea. They tend to put out decent games the first time and not have as many huge fixes, just small tweaks. " They've put the announcement in the FAQ.

Thomas M Hughes writes "Blizzard said a few weeks ago that Warcraft 3 won't be ready in 2001. While Blizzard has never been good at meeting its release deadlines, usually its a good idea. They tend to put out decent games the first time and not have as many huge fixes, just small tweaks. " They've put the announcement in the FAQ.

Blazemonger writes "There's a story from IGN on Yahoo! talking about Blizzard recruiting for the upcoming expansion beta test. " I just filled out my form - have you? And I'd just like to reiterate my willingness to beta-test. Blizzard. I'm willing. So's CowboyNeal.

mozzer asks: "I'm doing an independent study course in university, and I'm writing an article on video games and academics - basically seeing if there's a correlation between the two. My prof suggested I take a sample of upper year, business strategy students, and see how well they fair at a strategy game (like Starcraft) and then compare how well they do in the game, to how well they did in the class. The question I'd like to ask is: What game do you think would be good to use? I'm afraid people might already know how to play Starcraft, which will skew the results (considering it has a fairly steep learning curve for new players). Or if there are any other ways we could test this sort of thing?"

Do you want an i-Opener, and for how much? Are space-vehicle rescues "your thing"? Does your cute iMac suffer from a video-game-violence deficiency? Do your Web habits stray to courtroom and crime-scene voyeurism? Do you think that online privacy agreements must of needs outlive the dot-com-ephemera which offer them? If Yes to any or all, you've come to the right place.

Money changes everything. After numerous writeups about the hacking potential of their iOpener device, Netpliance changed their service model and even the design of the product itself. Sounds like that wasn't enough: Cy Guy writes: "Netpliance has announced that they are raising the price of the i-Opener from the introductory price of $99 to $399 (neither price reflects the $21.95/month cost of Netpliance's Internet service which must be used with the device.) In a c|net interview Netpliance president Kent Savage dismissed hacker modifications to the device as a factor in the price increase." As Ioldanach puts it, "Think its 'cause they finally realised it was cheaper to raise prices then 'hack-proof' their product?"

What I'd like to see is Netpliance package the LCD and CPU of the i-Opener and sell those packages to OEMs, so they could create custom housings, new uses, etc -- after all, lots of people would like a small LCD X-terminal.

MacGuyver, The A-Team, NASA ... Grave writes: "Looks like NASA got DS1 functioning again. A probe that was almost entirely made up of experimental technologies can be salvaged, yet two hopefully-soon-to-be-routine flights to Mars can't be. Ah, well, at least we know that Ion Engines are workable. Bring on the TIEs!"

TRUSTe dusts off the white hat for a bit? Last week, a story appeared which noted the alarming news that failed web-merchant Toysmart planned to sell its customer information in an effort to recover some money. According to this Standard story, "The nonprofit organization TRUSTe announced Friday it is planning to file a brief in bankruptcy court that will decide whether Toysmart.com can sell its customer lists." Jamie raises two points to consider:

1. Time will tell what effect (if any) TRUSTe's planned brief will have on the Toysmart bankruptcy proceedings.
2. The company that bought Boo.com insists they will continue to honor the old privacy policy for old customers.

Maybe we could combine this with 'Survivor'? jgalvin222 writes "APB Online, Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. This web site is known for offering in-depth breaking news, tons of information on ongoing investigations, and you can listen to live police scanners. This web site will surely be missed, and if you read the article, you can see that some of their techs have volunteered to post crime and safety articles over the next couple of weeks - without pay. If anything, you should peruse their video library, some of the clips are both amusing and interesting."

The Devil will find work for idle hands to do. Ryan writes: "Here is something to keep us Mac fans happy. Go2Mac reports that Diablo II has gone gold for Mac version, making this one of the quickest PC to Mac conversions ever." Here is the official announcement from Blizzard.

A number of people wrote with the press release from Blizzard that Diablo II has gone gold. I've been playing CowboyNeal's stress copy (Barbarian only) and it's really cool. (CT:Slashdot may be down the week those things hit the shelves ;)

Jacek Fedorynski writes "John Cash has left id Software to work on a yet unannounced project at Blizzard. Here's Graeme Devine's .plan update on the subject."

GeekLife.com writes: "Blizzard announced their public beta test. This time there are 100,000 lucky winners. The sign-up is over at ZDNet's Gamespot. " Following up on the first round of beta testing in which only a lucky few got selected, this test round is for stress testing the Battle.Net servers in preparation for release. I (and almost everyone I know) couldn't get in on the last one, so I'm hoping my luck is better this time around.

MimEnkode writes "Blizzard has announced the beta test for Diablo II. Only 1,000 beta testers will be picked. You'll be able to sign up here." This is not first-come-first-served; sign up at any time on Monday, and you'll have the same chance as everyone else.

MimEnkode writes "Blizzard has announced the beta test for Diablo II. Only 1,000 beta testers will be picked. You'll be able to sign up here." This is not first-come-first-served; sign up at any time on Monday, and you'll have the same chance as everyone else.

Omicron writes, "Blizzard will be releasing a special collector's edition of Diablo II. It looks pretty cool -- a 24-minute DVD movie, the full game, and it's signed by the development team. I'm looking for a place to buy it already!" Note that the collector's edition will be available only during the launch, and that the price is expected to be USD60-70.

Omicron writes, "Blizzard will be releasing a special collector's edition of Diablo II. It looks pretty cool -- a 24-minute DVD movie, the full game, and it's signed by the development team. I'm looking for a place to buy it already!" Note that the collector's edition will be available only during the launch, and that the price is expected to be USD60-70.

Michael Simms writes "According to an article in the Loki Requests newsgroup, Sam Lantinga, lead programmer for Loki Games states that 'We are going to try to do Starcraft and Diablo II as soon as we sell enough units to make it interesting to Blizzard' One way to help to persuade Blizzard that they should work with Loki on this is to sign the Games Petitions Page run by Tux Games. "

Anonymous something something writes "Warcraft 3 has been announced. Check blizzard's site. No plans on doing a linux port but I'm sure we'll get it to work under wine. " Looks like quite a departure from WC 1&2 - "Role Playing Strategy". 6 races, too. Could the release of C&C: Tiberian Sun hurt sales when the game finally is released?

Andrew Taylor wrote in to tell us that Blizzard is at again. This time they are suing Micro Star for using the Campaign editor to design and sell new levels, which violates the license agreement. Wolf3D/Doom/Quake became legends because of exactly what companies like Micro Star is doing. Seems depressing that Blizzard needs to sue companies for it. Gamespot has details.

Wintermute wrote in to tell everyone that it is possible to get StarCraft to run under Wine . In a word Un-be-f**king-believable . Battle.net apparently doesn't work, but single player play is fine. I haven't even seen StarCraft yet, even though my Room Mate has a CD. I think installing wine just became a priority :) Check out This Page for details on how to make it happen.

kovi sent us A Link to StarHack. I hadn't heard about this one, but it definately strikes me as important. Apparently Blizzard, fearlessly striking bold move after bold move in an effort to win "Worst PR of the 1998" has decided to take action against StarHack, a site dedicated to sharing info about the back end of StarCraft, and to ultimately write a new server. Blizzard wants them to stop. Go to the site, read what they have to say, and if you agree that what is happening is wrong, they have directions on how you can help.

Arctangent wrote in to pass on a rumor that Blizzard (creators of Diable and WarCraft II, a pair of the greatest games ever) is Willing to port StarCraft to Linux if enough demand is shown. Update: Erik contacted me and said this was just a rumor. Bummer. Blizzard is probably making a mistake here especially since they could get volunteer coders to help do it if they were willing to GPL the older games. Guess that means I won't get to play StarCraft. At least WC2 runs under Dosemu...