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• Your computer must be at least a Pentium III 600 (or equivalent), with 128 MB RAM or more.
• Your computer must have a mouse, 400 MB of available hard drive space, a 4X CD-ROM or faster, a 32 MB 3D accelerator card with Direct3D support, a DirectX compatible 16 bit sound card, a 28.8 modem (or better) with Internet connectivity, and DirectX 8.1.
• You must be running Windows 98, 98SE, 2000 (running with local Administrator privileges), ME, or XP to play the Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos(TM) beta on your system.
• Your Internet connection must be capable of running 32-bit Windows socket applications (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer).
• You must have a valid e-mail address.

As a Mac OS X user, I was hoping my less popular operating system would give me an advangtage in getting in as a beta tester. Wonder if they'll do a separate Mac beta test later? Their site still says they expect to ship the Mac "as close as possible" to the Windows ship date.

• Your computer must be at least a Pentium III 600 (or equivalent), with 128 MB RAM or more.
• Your computer must have a mouse, 400 MB of available hard drive space, a 4X CD-ROM or faster, a 32 MB 3D accelerator card with Direct3D support, a DirectX compatible 16 bit sound card, a 28.8 modem (or better) with Internet connectivity, and DirectX 8.1.
• You must be running Windows 98, 98SE, 2000 (running with local Administrator privileges), ME, or XP to play the Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos(TM) beta on your system.
• Your Internet connection must be capable of running 32-bit Windows socket applications (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer).
• You must have a valid e-mail address.

As a Mac OS X user, I was hoping my less popular operating system would give me an advangtage in getting in as a beta tester. Wonder if they'll do a separate Mac beta test later? Their site still says they expect to ship the Mac "as close as possible" to the Windows ship date.

Registration for beta starts in about three hours (PST). Dang it (for ActiveX part)!

I find it funny that Warcraft 3 made the list on the same day that beta test signups for WC3 are being accepted. Mind you, the site seems to be completely down at the moment.

When is the beta?
We honestly can't say for sure yet.

"However, now that they have added 3D chip features, Warcraft III will probably need either a decent video card (Geforce or greater) and/or a relatively fast processor (600-700 Mhz+). Of course, these are guesses."

The system requirements are listed in the FAQ (http://www.blizzard.com/war3/faq/faq-features.sht ml):

"What will the system requirements be?
It is important to us to make our games playable on as broad a range of machines as possible, and we do not see WarCraft III as an exception. We are planning on having a requirement of a PIII 400 system with a 3D accelerator card and 64megs of RAM. Currently, we are working on game performance and should be able to give more concrete information soon."

Since they are requiring only 400 Mhz and 64 MB of RAM, they most likely will not require a Geforce+ card to run this. That's a relief for me! Whew!

I've already seen a few simple questions that are answered in the Warcraft III FAQ. Some highlights: Yes, there will be a Mac version. No, there won't be a Linux version.

From the looks of things, WarCraft III will continue the age-old tradition of requiring decent hardware to run well. Fortunately, they apparently are making a full-featured map editor (probably similar to Starcraft's, which was VERY impressive, unlike Civ II/IIIs).

Also, they finally are providing high resolution support, while still (somehow) maintaining lower resolution support for those of us with not-so-good video cards.

Looks like it's going to be another addicting Blizzard game for me, but I'm glad it won't compete with my Civ III playing time for awhile.

StarCraft, also by Blizzard, also has spawn ability. Unfortunately, the Brood War expansion set can't be spawned, as far as I can tell. :-(

take a look at the licensing for divx 4.11. The mac version says it uses an open source license (I'm not sure which since I don't have a mac), but the Windows and Linux versions both use the following EULA:

DIVXNETWORKS, INC. END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE
USING THIS PRODUCT. IT CONTAINS SOFTWARE, THE USE OF WHICH IS LICENSED
BY DIVXNETWORKS, INC., TO ITS CUSTOMERS FOR THEIR USE ONLY AS SET FORTH
BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS
AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE. USING ANY PART OF THE SOFTWARE
INDICATES THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS.

LICENSE: DivXNetworks, Inc. grants you a personal, limited, non-
exclusive license to use the accompanying software program(s) (the
"Software") subject to the terms and restrictions set forth in this
License Agreement. You are not permitted to lease or rent (except under
separate mutually agreeable terms set forth in writing), distribute or
sublicense the Software or to use the Software in a time-sharing
arrangement or in any other unauthorized manner. Further, no license is
granted to you in the human readable code of the Software (source code).
Except as provided below, this License Agreement does not grant you any
rights to patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, or any other
rights in respect to the Software.

The Software is licensed to be used on any computing device. You may
reproduce and provide one (1) copy of such Software for each computing
device on which such Software is used as permitted hereunder. Otherwise,
the Software and supporting documentation may be copied only as
essential for backup or archive purposes in support of your use of the
Software as permitted hereunder. You must reproduce and include all
copyright notices and any other proprietary rights notices appearing on
the Software on any copies that you make.

NO ASSIGNMENT; NO REVERSE ENGINEERING: You may transfer the Software and
this License Agreement to another party if the other party agrees in
writing to accept the terms and conditions of this License Agreement. If
you transfer the Software, you must at the same time either transfer all
copies of the Software as well as the supporting documentation to the
same party or destroy any such materials not transferred. Except as set
forth above, you may not transfer or assign the Software or your rights
under this License Agreement.

Modification, reverse engineering, reverse compiling, or disassembly of
the Software is expressly prohibited. Analyzing the input to and output
from the Software is expressly prohibited except when this is done
solely to evaluate the subjective quality of the Software's visual and
audio processes. You may not otherwise modify, alter, adapt, port, or
merge the Software except as specified in this License Agreement.

EXPORT RESTRICTIONS: You agree that you will not export or re-export the
Software or accompanying documentation (or any copies thereof) or any
products utilizing the Software or such documentation in violation of
any applicable laws or regulations of the United States or the country
in which you obtained them.

TRADE SECRETS; TITLE: You acknowledge and agree that the structure,
sequence and organization of the Software are the valuable trade secrets
of DivXNetworks, Inc. and its suppliers. You agree to hold such trade
secrets in confidence. You further acknowledge and agree that ownership
of, and title to, the Software and all subsequent copies thereof
regardless of the form or media are held by DivXNetworks, Inc. and its
suppliers.

TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS: "DivX" is a trademark of DivXNetworks, Inc.
You may not remove, alter, deface, overprint, or otherwise obscure any
DivXNetworks, Inc. trademark, service mark, or copyright notices
included with this Software.

NO COMMERCIAL USE: This License Agreement grants you the right to use
the Software for personal use only. Commercial use of the Software or of
the work products resulting from its use is not permitted under this
License Agreement. Such use may be permitted under another license,
which must be separately agreed to by you and DivXNetworks, Inc.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: All intellectual property rights in and to this
Software are and shall remain in DivXNetworks, Inc.

TERM AND TERMINATION: This License Agreement is effective until
terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying the Software
and documentation together with all copies and merged portions in any
form. It will also terminate immediately if you fail to comply with any
term or condition of this License Agreement. Upon such termination you
agree to destroy the Software and documentation, together with all
copies and merged portions in any form.

GOVERNING LAW: This License Agreement shall be governed by the laws of
the State of California and by the laws of the United States, excluding
their conflicts of law principles. The United Nations Convention on
Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980) is hereby excluded
in its entirety from application to this License Agreement.

LIMITED WARRANTY; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED
OTHERWISE IN A WRITTEN AGREEMENT BETWEEN DIVXNETWORKS, INC. AND YOU, THE
SOFTWARE IS NOW PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR
THE WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING,
DIVXNETWORKS, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET
YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (ii) THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED,
TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED
FROM THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, (iv) THE
QUALITY OF THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, (v) ANY ERRORS IN
THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED, AND/OR (vi) YOU MAY USE, PRACTICE,
EXECUTE, OR ACCESS THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT VIOLATING THE INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS OF OTHERS. SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE
EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED
WARRANTY MAY LAST, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF
TEXAS LAW IS NOT HELD TO APPLY TO THIS AGREEMENT FOR ANY REASON, THEN IN
JURISDICTIONS WHERE WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES, REPRESENTATIONS, AND/OR
CONDITIONS OF ANY TYPE MAY NOT BE DISCLAIMED, ANY SUCH WARRANTY,
GUARANTEE, REPRESENATION AND/OR WARRANTY IS: (1) HEREBY LIMITED TO THE
PERIOD OF EITHER (A) THIRTY (30) DAYS FROM THE DATE OF OPENING THE
PACKAGE CONTAINING THE SOFTWARE OR (B) THE SHORTEST PERIOD ALLOWED BY
LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION IF A THIRTY (30) DAY LIMITATION WOULD
BE UNENFORCEABLE; AND (2) THE SOLE LIABILITY OF DIVXNETWORKS, INC. FOR
ANY BREACH OF ANY SUCH WARRANTY, GUARANTEE, REPRESENTATION, AND/OR
CONDITION SHALL BE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A NEW COPY OF THE SOFTWARE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL DIVXNETWORKS, INC. OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO YOU
OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING,
WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS,
WHETHER OR NOT DIVXNETWORKS, INC. HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE. SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE
EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL
DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THESE
LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE
OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY.

SEVERABILITY: In the event any provision of this License Agreement is
found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality
and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions shall not in any
way be affected or impaired and a valid, legal and enforceable provision
of similar intent and economic impact shall be substituted therefor.

ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This License Agreement sets forth the entire
understanding and agreement between you and DivXNetworks, Inc.,
supersedes all prior agreements, whether written or oral, with respect
to the Software, and may be amended only in a writing signed by both
parties.

For information about commercial licensing please email licensing@divxnetworks.com
DivXNetworks, Inc.
10350 Science Center Drive
Building 14, Suite 140
San Diego, California 92121
16 July 2001

Now, this is only the license for the non-commercial codec so that people can actually watch the stuff. Licencsing for commercial uses is different and information on it can be obtained by emailing licensing@divxnetworks.com. Considering Blizzard just got a license to use DiVX to distribute their trailers and say they only keep QT arround for the Mac users, it seems that whatever license DivX is using for commercial application in proprietary and non proprietary systems might be exactly what you are looking for.

take a look at the licensing for divx 4.11. The mac version says it uses an open source license (I'm not sure which since I don't have a mac), but the Windows and Linux versions both use the following EULA: DIVXNETWORKS, INC. END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE USING THIS PRODUCT. IT CONTAINS SOFTWARE, THE USE OF WHICH IS LICENSED BY DIVXNETWORKS, INC., TO ITS CUSTOMERS FOR THEIR USE ONLY AS SET FORTH BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE. USING ANY PART OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS. LICENSE: DivXNetworks, Inc. grants you a personal, limited, non- exclusive license to use the accompanying software program(s) (the "Software") subject to the terms and restrictions set forth in this License Agreement. You are not permitted to lease or rent (except under separate mutually agreeable terms set forth in writing), distribute or sublicense the Software or to use the Software in a time-sharing arrangement or in any other unauthorized manner. Further, no license is granted to you in the human readable code of the Software (source code). Except as provided below, this License Agreement does not grant you any rights to patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, or any other rights in respect to the Software. The Software is licensed to be used on any computing device. You may reproduce and provide one (1) copy of such Software for each computing device on which such Software is used as permitted hereunder. Otherwise, the Software and supporting documentation may be copied only as essential for backup or archive purposes in support of your use of the Software as permitted hereunder. You must reproduce and include all copyright notices and any other proprietary rights notices appearing on the Software on any copies that you make. NO ASSIGNMENT; NO REVERSE ENGINEERING: You may transfer the Software and this License Agreement to another party if the other party agrees in writing to accept the terms and conditions of this License Agreement. If you transfer the Software, you must at the same time either transfer all copies of the Software as well as the supporting documentation to the same party or destroy any such materials not transferred. Except as set forth above, you may not transfer or assign the Software or your rights under this License Agreement. Modification, reverse engineering, reverse compiling, or disassembly of the Software is expressly prohibited. Analyzing the input to and output from the Software is expressly prohibited except when this is done solely to evaluate the subjective quality of the Software's visual and audio processes. You may not otherwise modify, alter, adapt, port, or merge the Software except as specified in this License Agreement. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS: You agree that you will not export or re-export the Software or accompanying documentation (or any copies thereof) or any products utilizing the Software or such documentation in violation of any applicable laws or regulations of the United States or the country in which you obtained them. TRADE SECRETS; TITLE: You acknowledge and agree that the structure, sequence and organization of the Software are the valuable trade secrets of DivXNetworks, Inc. and its suppliers. You agree to hold such trade secrets in confidence. You further acknowledge and agree that ownership of, and title to, the Software and all subsequent copies thereof regardless of the form or media are held by DivXNetworks, Inc. and its suppliers. TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS: "DivX" is a trademark of DivXNetworks, Inc. You may not remove, alter, deface, overprint, or otherwise obscure any DivXNetworks, Inc. trademark, service mark, or copyright notices included with this Software. NO COMMERCIAL USE: This License Agreement grants you the right to use the Software for personal use only. Commercial use of the Software or of the work products resulting from its use is not permitted under this License Agreement. Such use may be permitted under another license, which must be separately agreed to by you and DivXNetworks, Inc. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: All intellectual property rights in and to this Software are and shall remain in DivXNetworks, Inc. TERM AND TERMINATION: This License Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying the Software and documentation together with all copies and merged portions in any form. It will also terminate immediately if you fail to comply with any term or condition of this License Agreement. Upon such termination you agree to destroy the Software and documentation, together with all copies and merged portions in any form. GOVERNING LAW: This License Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California and by the laws of the United States, excluding their conflicts of law principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980) is hereby excluded in its entirety from application to this License Agreement. LIMITED WARRANTY; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED OTHERWISE IN A WRITTEN AGREEMENT BETWEEN DIVXNETWORKS, INC. AND YOU, THE SOFTWARE IS NOW PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THE WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, DIVXNETWORKS, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (ii) THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, (iv) THE QUALITY OF THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, (v) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED, AND/OR (vi) YOU MAY USE, PRACTICE, EXECUTE, OR ACCESS THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT VIOLATING THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF OTHERS. SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY MAY LAST, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF TEXAS LAW IS NOT HELD TO APPLY TO THIS AGREEMENT FOR ANY REASON, THEN IN JURISDICTIONS WHERE WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES, REPRESENTATIONS, AND/OR CONDITIONS OF ANY TYPE MAY NOT BE DISCLAIMED, ANY SUCH WARRANTY, GUARANTEE, REPRESENATION AND/OR WARRANTY IS: (1) HEREBY LIMITED TO THE PERIOD OF EITHER (A) THIRTY (30) DAYS FROM THE DATE OF OPENING THE PACKAGE CONTAINING THE SOFTWARE OR (B) THE SHORTEST PERIOD ALLOWED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION IF A THIRTY (30) DAY LIMITATION WOULD BE UNENFORCEABLE; AND (2) THE SOLE LIABILITY OF DIVXNETWORKS, INC. FOR ANY BREACH OF ANY SUCH WARRANTY, GUARANTEE, REPRESENTATION, AND/OR CONDITION SHALL BE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A NEW COPY OF THE SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL DIVXNETWORKS, INC. OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT DIVXNETWORKS, INC. HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE. SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. SEVERABILITY: In the event any provision of this License Agreement is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired and a valid, legal and enforceable provision of similar intent and economic impact shall be substituted therefor. ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This License Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between you and DivXNetworks, Inc., supersedes all prior agreements, whether written or oral, with respect to the Software, and may be amended only in a writing signed by both parties. For information about commercial licensing please email licensing@divxnetworks.com DivXNetworks, Inc. 10350 Science Center Drive Building 14, Suite 140 San Diego, California 92121 16 July 2001 Now, this is only the license for the non-commercial codec so that people can actually watch the stuff. Licencsing for commercial uses is different and information on it can be obtained by emailing licensing@divxnetworks.com. Considering Blizzard just got a license to use DiVX to distribute their trailers and say they only keep QT arround for the Mac users, it seems that whatever license DivX is using for commercial application in proprietary and non proprietary systems might be exactly what you are looking for.

First of all, you don't have Battle Net with WacCraft II, so with the Warcraft II Battle Net Edition you not only can play under Windows, you get free Battle Net play also. also, it is only what, like 10 bucks? i'll agree that for all intents and purposes it is the same game, but the Battle Net really pushes it over the top, they have to charge for that somehow.

-sam

The WoW FAQ is somewhat less than informative...
For what platforms will the game be available?
The game will initially be available for PCs.
Wow, that helps. They do forget that not all the world's a Windows box, don't they? Where's the (Linux/BeOS/*BSD/QNX/other-fave-thing-that-runs-on -PC-hardware) port?

Perhaps few people other than myself remember it, but the game Ys book 1 and 2 for the TurboGrafx has a long legacy - it was probably the first CD-ROM roleplaying game.

And in case you were wondering, the fantastic anime Escaflowne contains a number of scenes of Folken conversing with Lord Dornkirk over a communicator, in exactly the same pose and setting as Dalles speaking to Darm in the famous cutscene...

Anyway, that's today's trivia.

If you check the general FAQ at blizzard's website, this question is there: Can you tell us anything about the Unannounced Project being worked on by Team 2? and blizzards reply is: It's not Starcraft II.

So it looks like you're out of luck for a sequel.

The game sales are off, it's lost it's luster. After Columbine, parents want their kids out riding a bike ...SNIP...

Odd. I thought many games, including one in which you raise undead armies and descend into Hell to battle demons, were breaking sales records.

Why do you pay $40 for a new game? From reading this it sounds like the PC game companies should be paying us to play their games! Imagine if Blizzard payed you $10 to get a Diablo character killed,and $20 if you kill Diablo?

Official site -- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

IGN Review of DII LOD. Very good review, plenty o' screenshots.

The Japanese point of view on Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

Maybe you should check out the expansion then, since it will be able to run in 800x600 according to PlanetDiablo and Blizzards sign up form for the beta test.

What is all the panic about???? Currently the way things work with the ESRB is stricly on the companies whim to have the game rated. Many companies already do this with pleasure, Blizzard Entertainment.

Would the requirement of having games rated be so different? As I have seen it looks like more and more companies are submitting to the ESRB.

Personally I think this is a good move but I'm still young and don't know any better.

Actually no. Blizzard also owns the movie title "Diablo" and (in the U.S.) movie titles are registered and duplicates are generally not allowed. New Line don't have much hope, I'd say (IANAL, etc).

http://blizzard.com

--
Ellison: How are you gentlemen !! All your database are belong to us

Since when did Blizzard own all rights to the word "diablo"?

Kudos to Jamie for investigating this further; the following was my original submission on this topic:

=======

The mind boggles. Police have apparently raided a student's dorm room due to his participation in a heavy metal music inspired gaming clan, "Bled For Days." The article goes to some length not to mention the exact game, including ominous references to a "war-like" "game of chess" where "it's not like we were going to kill you or anything". The game in question, of course, is the seminal Humans vs. Bugs vs. Yellow Psychic Aliens wargame, Starcraft. The presence of a web page listing in-game rivalries was apparently taken for death threats. For all the talk of "children" being unable to differentiate fake violence from the real thing, it seems to me that "adults" were the ones breaking into someone else's home, carrying loaded weapons, confiscating expensive goods while availing themselves of the opportunity to search for anything more valuable(i.e. drugs).

As hilariously pitiful as this seems, there's a real problem here. The tragedy is that, sooner or later, the credibility of authorities trying to fight real computer crime will be so stretched that even when society desperately requires their intervention, the police will find themselves unable to get even the slightest shreds of voluntary cooperation. A bizarre and ultimately truly dangerous attitude, the apathetic chuckle, has spawned over recent years by Zero Tolerance(and apparently, Intelligence, Accountability, or Political Responsibility) policies; the exact policies that have lead to first graders being suspended for pointing chicken at eachother and being expelled for kissing a girl on the cheek. People are willing to quickly accept these ridiculous and flagrantly neglectful abuse of power because "it's funny to laugh at...but I can't do something about it, isn't that someone else's job?"

This threatens the core legitimacy of what really are genuinely critical services; the police, the school, and the administrators all become jokes, not to be taken seriously. The immediate reaction my friends had to this incident at Kent State was, "The last time police at Kent State didn't understand what the students were up to, somebody won a Pulitzer Prize". Since the most damaging effect of any computer security violation is the long term degradation of trust in a given service, the ignorance these busts show eventually makes it harder to actually control and address genuine security issues, such as DDoS attacks. Instead of simply laughing and moving on, what can we, as a community do to prevent these kind of occurances in the future? Would something as simple as a confidential "reality check" group of experts, made available to law enforcement as consultants, be helpful? Would a set of guidelines, peer reviewed by the community, be useful? Instead of cursing the darkness, how can we praise the light?

... The Program also contains a Level Editor (the "Editor") that allows you to create custom levels or other materials for your personal use in connection with the Program ("New Materials"). All use of the Editor or any New Materials is subject to this License Agreement. ...

... You are entitled to use the Program as a single product for your own use, but you are not entitled to use or allow third parties to use the Editor and the New Materials created thereby for commercial purposes including, but not limited to, distribution of New Materials on a stand alone basis or packaged with other software or hardware through any and all distribution channels, including, but not limited to retail sales and on-line electronic distribution without the written consent of Blizzard ...

... The Program also contains a Level Editor (the "Editor") that allows you to create custom levels or other materials for your personal use in connection with the Program ("New Materials"). All use of the Editor or any New Materials is subject to this License Agreement. ...

... You are entitled to use the Program as a single product for your own use, but you are not entitled to use or allow third parties to use the Editor and the New Materials created thereby for commercial purposes including, but not limited to, distribution of New Materials on a stand alone basis or packaged with other software or hardware through any and all distribution channels, including, but not limited to retail sales and on-line electronic distribution without the written consent of Blizzard ...

If you read Blizzard's web page, Warcraft 3 isn't supposed to be released until mid 2001. Wired needs to do a little more research and stop pulling things out of their ass. Not that it matters, I gave up reading them months ago.

" Role play is dead. "


47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)

Right now, I don't see any PSX2 titles I would want to buy. In November, Star Wars: Star Fighter will be released and I'd have to wait til 2001 Q1 for the game I truly desire...Gran Turismo 3.

BTW:

I have a friend who got two PSX2 and he plans to sell one for $1000+ on eBay. He waited in line for eight hours so if you break it down, he got paid $80/hour to wait for PSX2. That's not bad at all.

The question is, what will they do with the Cow from Practical C Programming?

Starcraft cheat code: "there is no cow level" does this give you any ideas? It sure gave the Diablo team some ideas, as Diablo II includes a cow bonus level. (Yes, I know they're both Blizzard but...)

Think Earthworm Jim. Think the official PC Space Invaders. Think South Park 64. Cow levels all over the place.

The press release here: http://www.blizzard.com/press/00090 3d2exp.shtml says "One new act set in the Barbarian Highlands" I assume an "act set" is something like another 4 acts.

Since they weren't in the story...
http://www.blizzard.com/
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/

And there's already even a patch 1.01:
http://www.blizzard .com/support/diablo2/information/patch.shtml

Since they weren't in the story...
http://www.blizzard.com/
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/

And there's already even a patch 1.01:
http://www.blizzard .com/support/diablo2/information/patch.shtml

Since they weren't in the story...
http://www.blizzard.com/
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/

And there's already even a patch 1.01:
http://www.blizzard .com/support/diablo2/information/patch.shtml

Blizzard had 2 betas for Diablo 2. The first one was only for 1000 people in the USA, and they all were sent a CD. The second one was open to many more people (I think 100000), although everybody had to download about a 100 meg file. This second beta is still ongoing, although you need a key to play (1 per person, and don't ask for mine). This beta will end in about 4 days, since the full game is being released.

Blizzard had 2 betas for Diablo 2. The first one was only for 1000 people in the USA, and they all were sent a CD. The second one was open to many more people (I think 100000), although everybody had to download about a 100 meg file. This second beta is still ongoing, although you need a key to play (1 per person, and don't ask for mine). This beta will end in about 4 days, since the full game is being released.

Has Linus considered changing his name to Paul?

But then it'd be Paulix, and everyone would think we were freaky artists, throwing computers source code into the air and having it blown onto a keyboard by air-plane turbines, and imagine how confused they'd be after that! (Paulix, Pollock, what's the difference?)

This silliness brought to you by Diablo 2. This Beta rocks, but I need more sleep!

I used a P200 32MB, and for the most part, it was fine. It does get a bit choppy with lots of monsters on-screen at once and/or several players, though. For a little bit, I even used a 28.8 modem, and it wasn't that laggy. The major lag periods I think (and hope) were only due to them working out the kinks in the servers. In any case, yay, Blizzard!

Yes, they have released games for Mac OS in the past, although a bit later, as is usual in the industry. I do not know about Diablo II though, you can find out here though!

Mike Roberto (roberto@soul.apk.net) -GAIM: MicroBerto

I run a fairly large EverQuest-related humor site, so I've been following this issue since it started (even if only to make fun of it).

What's happening here is a thorny problem where individual "privacy" headbutts with everyone's best interests.

A quick background for those not in the know, Verant Interactive produces and maintains EverQuest, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. Thousands of players connect to Verant-administered servers and play alongside other players in a persistent world. It's the second major-market title in the MMORPG genre started by Ultima Online.

The way these games work is centralized servers store all the state information about the virtual world. To be general, nothing is stored client-side. This is required, because unlike games like Quake, the world is persistent. An early incarnation of this type of game was Diablo. The main difference between the newer games (UO and EQ) and Diablo is that with Diablo, all your character information was stored client-side. This became a major problem for the game, as it was only a matter of time before the file formats were reverse-engineered and people started modifying their characters to be super-powered.

By storing the information server-side, this type of cheating is avoided. No matter what you do, there will always be people who want to cheat, and if the information is stored server-side, people will try to exploit the server to cheat, or will "enhance" their client software in order to give them an unfair advantage in the game. Ultima Online has had a long history of dealing with this type of problem. Many security weaknesses in the UO servers were discovered (and fixed), but at the same time, these weaknesses were exploited by people, most often to do devestating things to other players of the game.

Recently, EQ has had the same things happening to it. A program known as "Show-EQ" has been around for quite some time, which simply gives a player an unfair advantage in the game. Verant has dealt with this in a subtle manner, changing their client/server data stream every so often to set back development of the utility.

In the past couple weeks, other programs for EQ have begun to pop up, with more nefarious purposes. The EverQuest servers have been crashed on more than one occasion by these programs. This is what brought Verant to suggesting drive-scanning. It's one thing if someone is just cheating, but it's another thing completely if they're maliciously trying to crash the game.

They took their first countermeasures not too long ago, by adding a feature to the client software that scans your Windows task list and looks for these "external utilities". If it finds one, it flips a "I'm a cheater" flag on your account and you end up with a cancelled EQ account.

They proposed to extend their search to the hard drive, to see if any of these programs even exist on your system... and this is where people started to get upset.

Verant has been very open and forthcoming about the proposed changes, keeping active discussions regarding the issue on the various websites dedicated to EverQuest, offering reasoning and explantions of the scanning process, and they even required all users to answer a poll question regarding the issue on login to the game (which turned up 80%+ in favor of the scanning).

Even with the overwhelming support of the scanning by their playerbase, they responsibly decided to back down on the issue.

Now granted, what they suggested could be a huge tool for abuse and privacy intrusion, but they did not try to "sneak" it past their users in any form. What they were proposing was nothing compared to some of the things that people thought they were planning on doing (there have been some heated arguments about it the past few days).

In short, its not really that they intended to intrude on people's privacy, but that they were seeking to increase the quality of their service and actually have a way to enforce their "no cheating" rules.

Verant should be commended on their responsible handling of this entire incident, not trashed in the court of public opinion based on reports that only tell half the story, like the one posted here on Slashdot.

You're right, we do have a problem, but you're putting the blame in the wrong place. It's not Loki's fault that were isn't a StarCraft or Diablo for Linux. If you want to bitch, bitch at Blizzard. They're the stingy bastards who don't see enough of a Linux market to ALLOW Loki to port StarCraft, WarCraft, Diablow(2) to Linux. As for the makers of Bioware, they consider Balder's Gate a lost cause (As all game companies do once they've shipped a title and gotten their initial revenue). But in their defense, they're developing Neverwinter Nights for Win, Mac, and (wait for it) Linux all at the same time.

A copy of StarCraft ended up aboard the shuttle, orbiting earth 153 times. Now everyone Blizzard thanked for being a beta tester in their manual has had their name in space.

The same might happen with Diablo 2...Or (if StarCraft went to space), is there a more appropriate location to take a copy of Diablo 2 (think double hockey sticks)...

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

*cursing* *mumbling*

Dammit ID, don't do this to us again... when Quake2 was released the network code was so bad it was unplayable on anything less than a T1, and there were all kinds of bugs in the rendering (artifacts being left around), and let's not get into the you-can-shoot-me-but-i-can't-die class of bugs.

Comeon guys, take a hint from these cool guys and wait until it really is ready to be shipped. We're willing to wait for a bug free product. The question is - are you willing to live with another poor release?


--

...even those that *try* to a degree (e.g. games that attract grognards) do not model things like communications issues, intelligence (down to profiles of leaders...), logistics (not that many games have the concept of moving ammunition, fuel, or food), delegation (generals did NOT have to order infantry sergeants to get their men to seek cover if, say, an MG42 starts firing towards their lines), and so forth.

StarCraft does a seemingly good job of simulating most of those things although the units involved are completely fictional. :)

Happy computing!

For more info, check out Blizzard's press release at http://www.blizzard.com/PRESS/991111.sht ml. It looks like they are having a 1000 person closed beta followed by an open beta for testing Battle.Net.

Why not ask those classy fellows at Loki Entertainment Software to port it to Linux

I sent them an email asking for a Linux port of Blizzard's StarCraft and I recieved this reply within a couple of hours:

>Please port StarCraft by Blizzard to Linux.

Blizzard has taken a "wait and see" approach to Linux gaming. If the sales numbers are up there for our current releases, then they will be more willing to negotiate with us to port their great titles to Linux.

We hope you'll be happy with our upcoming announcements. We expect to port 16 titles next year alone.

Cheers,

Kayt Sorhaindoh
Loki Entertainment Software

So lets all buy up the current selection and lure more gaming companies to Linux!

And Wolfenstein was and still is awesome :)

Why not ask those classy fellows at Loki Entertainment Software to port it to Linux

I sent them an email asking for a Linux port of Blizzard's StarCraft and I recieved this reply within a couple of hours:

>Please port StarCraft by Blizzard to Linux.

Blizzard has taken a "wait and see" approach to Linux gaming. If the sales numbers are up there for our current releases, then they will be more willing to negotiate with us to port their great titles to Linux.

We hope you'll be happy with our upcoming announcements. We expect to port 16 titles next year alone.

Cheers,

Kayt Sorhaindoh
Loki Entertainment Software

So lets all buy up the current selection and lure more gaming companies to Linux!

And Wolfenstein was and still is awesome :)

On the main warcraft page (http://www.blizzard.com/war3/index.shtml ) there is an image (http://images.blizzard.com/war3/ima ges/dither.gif), the background in the "Prelude table data", that acts as a screen over the background. If you view the image on a white background it just looks like a grey image, with another background it makes the background darker.

Does anyone know how to create an image like that?

On the main warcraft page (http://www.blizzard.com/war3/index.shtml ) there is an image (http://images.blizzard.com/war3/ima ges/dither.gif), the background in the "Prelude table data", that acts as a screen over the background. If you view the image on a white background it just looks like a grey image, with another background it makes the background darker.

Does anyone know how to create an image like that?

Also..

--Would you champion MS if MSN was able to use AOL keywords and show you AOLs online content? Or AOLs bulletin boards? --

No. That would mean I would be recieving for free, what everyone else has to pay for. As soon as AIM, and GAIM, and TiK (if it still works) cost me a monthly fee, then a company who was allowing me access to that for free (while everyone else paid) would be in the wrong.

I didn't say Microsoft. This *isn't* about Microsoft (and I'm curious why everyone thinks it is.. who of you bashed Gaim?), its about a company trying to do for free, what others can do for free (unless the people who developed Gaim are partnered with AOL..?)

By the way, while we're on the topic of access, can anyone tell me why mail from @blizzard.com is being denied into AOL Namespace, and to their customers, without the customer or the sender knowing? (www.blizzard.com - 8-16-99, still there, if you're skeptical.)

I could speculate that they're upset that Battle.net is doing better than their online pay-to-play service, so they're being asses about it.. but thats not my place to do so.