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I managed to get a blue response in this thread regarding this topic: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031369399&sid=1&pageNo=1

Not only that, but WoW is dropping the mount levels again in 3.2.

According to the WoW Under Development page:

• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75; normal land mount): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150; epic land mount): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
• Expert Riding (Skill 225; normal flying mount): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
• Artisan Riding (Skill 300; epic flying mount): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
• Druid Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.
• Druid Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.

Star Wars Galaxies was missing its entire player city system at launch.

Granted, the only thing I can think of that WoW was missing was its Battleground system. It's mentioned on page 133 of the manual shipped with the original shipment of the game, but wasn't added to the game until Patch 1.5 on 7 June 2005... 6 and a half months after WoW's 23 November 2004 launch.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes would have been a better example. I've never played it, but I've been told it was very... incomplete at launch.

Yeah, Blizzard already did that.

Ok, so your complaint isn't "WoW isn't complex," it's "The first tier of WotLK dungeons are too easy." Well, the devs know, it was intentional, and the next content patch will be tougher.

He's already been found, and he's not happy.

I may be in the minority (everybody loves free, right?), but I think this is a bad move. I really don't see it as fundamentally different from Apple deciding that all iPhone apps must be free.

Banning users from charging for their addons is questionable. Banning users from even mentioning in-game that their addon relies on donations is just stupid. If you are familiar at all with WoW addons, you know that the author's site is in the minority of the places people get the addon from. There are a lot of 3rd party collection sites, and there a lot of 3rd party addon installers that install and update the addon for you. Basically, this is like if a different group made Windows Paintbrush and tried soliciting donations on their website. How likely is that that people will go there, see it and donate? Now imagine it was far more useful than paintbrush.

The reason this is colossally stupid is twofold. First, if someone makes a commercial addon, other addon creators will see it and realize it's possible to clone. If it's a really good addon, they will clone it and release it for free. Sounds familiar, no? This is basically a large part of the way OSS works.

The second reason is that addons become work, if the addon is at all complex and popular (aka useful). At some point, you're spending a lot of time supporting the addon that could be spent doing other work for money, playing WoW, or just actually enjoying your life. As codebases age, they definitely fall out of that "enjoying your life" category. This is why donations can actually motivate you to work on an addon when you would have otherwise abandoned it.

The people who take a simplistic view that "other people shouldn't be making money off of Blizzard's hard work!" either do not understand or are too dogmatic to consider the reality. Addons add value to WoW. Blizzard makes money off of addons, be they free or pay, through increased subscriptions. There are numerous users who would stop playing if addons weren't around to make up for the deficiencies in WoW's UI. Addons also very frequently serve as their research department, as you will often see a new version of WoW incorporate the concepts of a popular addon.

This will result in many popular addons being discontinued. It will result in many addon authors losing interest in the game (I used to build addons even once I had lost interest in actually playing.) It will result in many players dropping out of the game because of lack of addon support (WoW updates and UI code changes typically mean that an addon will stop working within a year of being abandoned).

This is financially bad for Blizzard. However, if it's only 0.01% of their income, they will likely not care. I guess the new policy will be a good form of market research to see just how important the addon community is.

BTW, this has already been discussed in much more detail by the people who actually make addons. For those who aren't in the community, I'd recommend you read it to see how it has already killed some popular addons that relied on donations.

Why's this still modded insightful? Account security has nothing to do with what a "rush job" games are.

What's more, malware that targets specific games can be really difficult to detect, so one user's AV software might not catch a security threat for months after infection. Here's an interesting thread from the WoW Tech Support forums about a trojan designed for a previous patch that still seems to slip past a lot of popular AV software: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14498530767&sid=1

According to this website (far from scientific) the largest guild in WoW is maybe 3600 members. BoB was twice that. I don't believe one of those guilds has ever been compromised in one day through a single act of metagaming. WoW servers are splintered. EVE has a single server, (instance) and everyone who plays EVE plays in a single universe. EVE may have a fraction of the players as WoW, but EVERYONE in EVE knows BoB.

I would bet this is the largest fall of an online superpower to date. I think that's newsworthy.

It is in fact free to download the client. You can do so here. What you pay for when you buy the game is the license key in the box that you'll then use to create an account. That's the charge. And the seller may toss in a couple bucks depending on where you buy it from.

errr Naxx was first released before BC was released, see patch 1.11 http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/implemented/1p11.html

You mean this?

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml

Agreed. Much like the "blogosphere," twitter is the kind of thing that is OMFG WORLD CHANGING.... but only to its users.

It's great that the service is there and all, but like facebook, myspace, et al, I really wish people would stop blithering about how INSANELY GREAT it is.

A web gui for the equivalent of an IRC or AIM /away message is about as world-changing as a gui for a MUD. Sure, at least one is successful... but I don't do MUDs or MMOs, so how has it changed my life, aside from a few of my friends disappearing for months whenever a new expansion is released?

That said, a pointless-to-me-anyway service that people I otherwise respect can't shut up about is being crapflooded? Awesome!

Rightclicking is funny in Opera.

I recently stopped playing wow - but if you go to the site and open the talent calculator you get a menu when rightclicking (to remove a talent) - and it flat out doesn't work unless you enable right-clicking in java script (IIRC).

I'm sure there's a reason they did this, but I don't know it ... Wow is pretty popular too. Personally, I switched from IE to Firefox when two things happened. 1) I saw a need (which came well before 2 btw) and 2) Websites worked reasonably well for an alternative: Firefox. I haven't noticed anything but a few legacy websites at work that Firefox isn't compatible with .. maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places

Anyway, I evaluated using Opera some time ago and this was more or less a deal breaker for me, since I had no need to stop using Firefox for something that couldn't do something I used frequently.

I've long thought that MMOs should try to haul in players outside of the actual game engine. Example, WoW: why do I have to spend 30 minutes in game repairing armor, checking mail, checking auction house prices or guild messages? Why can't I do that through some web browser interface? The benefit is two-fold: I don't feel like I'm spending so much time grinding, and the developers have another way of hooking me into the game. Next website that I have input on, I'll make that suggestion to the developers.

I'm sure the developers of various MMOGs have a whole pile of reasons why they don't want to allow out-of-game access.

Maybe it would be too hard to hook the game data into a web page... Maybe they're worried about cheating... Maybe they just want to make sure people are actually logging in...

But developers are starting to hear that people want to be able to do more with their games. Look at the functionality that's slowly being integrated into the WoW Armory. You can now check a character's calendar from the Armory and accept/decline invitations to events.

Since when does Microsoft care about that? The real issue is that Microsoft has discovered that they may be able to lock people into Windows and Office, but they can't force people to buy new versions. Their "customers" will just keep on using Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and then Microsoft only gets a cut when someone buys a new computer, if that. And then, even then, they have to cut the price of their software for the OEMs, and so they aren't making the sort of money they like.

It would be suicide, nothing less. Customers resoundingly rejected this sort of system with DivX, and they'll do so again. People aren't completely opposed to subscriptions when they feel enough value is offered for the money, though.

In business, nothing is more attractive to a bottom line than subscriptions. Yearly guaranteed profits, nice and predictable. Nothing is scarier to a business than spending millions on a product that people may or may not want. But money is a better feedback mechanism for a business than almost anything else.

Honestly, though, I just can't see them being quite that stupid, at least not in the foreseeable future. Just because subscriptions are a wet dream for the financial department doesn't mean marketing won't stick their finger in the wind to see if people would actually go for such a scheme. People have been predicting this sort of stuff for years, and it never happens. It works at the large-scale enterprise level (it's probably advantageous there, since it's a known and regular expense), but it would be disastrous at any smaller scale.

Still, it would be fun to see them try.

Perhaps the original poster didn't explicitly mention Macs, but the point was that WoW isn't on consoles, unless you count the Molten Core for the Atari 2600!

Your wrong. What most people fail to acknowledge with unconscionable is the the contract must result from an unfair bargaining position.

Since a computer game is purely a luxury good and there it literally nothing stopping you from declining the contract it is impossible for an unfair bargaining position thus impossible for it to be unconscionable . This is not my opinion. Please see Blizzard v bnetd where this is exact situation was ruled on in court. If the EULA is only available after purchase then the manufacturer must offer a refund. Thus the new clause in big capital letters at the start of Blizzard's EULA.

The DRM and clause issues are irrelevant to harm. If you feel they will harm you then don't accept the contract. You're agreeing to them thus harm does not exist. If you feel they are harmful then you decline. If you feel they aren't then you accept. You and you alone are in control of these facts thus unconscionable is impossible in a game EULA.

A thread that's gotten 300 replies, and 8000 views? MY GOD! That makes this almost as big an issue as "Level to 70 Killing Only Boars"!

Expect the CNN helicopter to show up real soon now!

>I'd like to see WoW on the commodore 64...

Done:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/

Enjoy it while it lasts!

They are not setting you to zero anymore. However I imagine the new items meant for lvl 80 with be a order of magnitude more costly. I also imagine lvl 80 arena will give a lot more points. It will almost be like setting you to zero in regards to getting the new lvl 80 gear.

Hmmm... I'm still a bit confused about this. Last update I heard is that they're not wiping honor, but they are going to reset Arena points at the launch of WotLK. Here they state honor will not be reset and here they state arena points will not be reset until the release of the xpac. I read somewere else (wowhead?) that stated arena points will be wiped, but not honor points. Though, I don't really know if that's normal for arena points because I've yet to do the arena, but will probably try it out at level 80 (since doing it now is kind of pointless)

They are not setting you to zero anymore. However I imagine the new items meant for lvl 80 with be a order of magnitude more costly. I also imagine lvl 80 arena will give a lot more points. It will almost be like setting you to zero in regards to getting the new lvl 80 gear.

Hmmm... I'm still a bit confused about this. Last update I heard is that they're not wiping honor, but they are going to reset Arena points at the launch of WotLK. Here they state honor will not be reset and here they state arena points will not be reset until the release of the xpac. I read somewere else (wowhead?) that stated arena points will be wiped, but not honor points. Though, I don't really know if that's normal for arena points because I've yet to do the arena, but will probably try it out at level 80 (since doing it now is kind of pointless)

I'll throw my opinion on the table--it's better than WoW. The game is full of "why didn't someone think of this before" ideas, which was the same impression WoW used to give. There's always something to do, which is really nice. However, if you are really into the EverQuest formula of raiding for gear, it is not for you. It's a large-scale PvP game.

More importantly, there's no Arena. This makes class balancing easier because the PvP is designed for group play, and you rarely come across people alone. There's also no downtime as you wait in a queue. Scenarios have queues, but you can enter those queues anywhere, so you just quest and do other things until a queue pops up. All of these things are giving you experience and renown, so you don't feel like you're wasting your time.

The Arena is Blizzard's attempt to turn WoW into Starcraft and get on Korean television. It's really affected the game in drastic ways. The criticisms have been listed countless times before, and there's no need for me to recite them. This thread on the official forums, which reached its post limit, sums it up well: Goblin In The Tuxedo (and here is a second thread that continued the discussion).

Keen and Graev have been describing their Warhammer experience as their guild hits the tier 4 content.

I'll throw my opinion on the table--it's better than WoW. The game is full of "why didn't someone think of this before" ideas, which was the same impression WoW used to give. There's always something to do, which is really nice. However, if you are really into the EverQuest formula of raiding for gear, it is not for you. It's a large-scale PvP game.

More importantly, there's no Arena. This makes class balancing easier because the PvP is designed for group play, and you rarely come across people alone. There's also no downtime as you wait in a queue. Scenarios have queues, but you can enter those queues anywhere, so you just quest and do other things until a queue pops up. All of these things are giving you experience and renown, so you don't feel like you're wasting your time.

The Arena is Blizzard's attempt to turn WoW into Starcraft and get on Korean television. It's really affected the game in drastic ways. The criticisms have been listed countless times before, and there's no need for me to recite them. This thread on the official forums, which reached its post limit, sums it up well: Goblin In The Tuxedo (and here is a second thread that continued the discussion).

Keen and Graev have been describing their Warhammer experience as their guild hits the tier 4 content.

This question has pretty much been answered publicly already. To quote one of the developers:

We have spreadsheets -- huge ones. We have values for characters in greens and raid buffed with epic gear. We have estimates of mob damage and health, character downtime, the benefits from enchants, gems and glyphs. We have conversion rates of mana to runic power to energy to rage. We look at damage per second, efficiency, button presses per second, typical rotations, movement vs. standing still, mobs vs. players and every other variable we can think of (and there are a LOT of them).

In the end we come up with an estimate for what an attack should do. We come up with a budget for talents and spells just like we have a budget for items at a given level. Sometimes those estimates are wrong because we forgot to take something into account, or because there's a bug in a talent or spell somewhere that messes up the calculation.

And then we do lots of testing, and to get a reality check on our tests, we compare them to the numbers people are reporting from the beta. Repeat as necessary.

I've said this in a few posts: that our numbers can sometimes be wrong (as is the case almost any time you deal with numbers), but the methods we use to arrive at them are absolutely not sloppy.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/

Yeah, well.......maybe not

1) That's not true. It can be a one time only thing at install.
2) That's the case with WoW. Please see Blizzard V bnetd for precedent. It's impossible for a game EULA to be unconscionable. You can just not buy the game (decline the contract). It's purely a luxury good. Unconscionable != unfair.
3) http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html In bold big letters at the top. "IF YOU REJECT THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER PURCHASING THE GAME, YOU MAY CALL (800)757-7707 TO REQUEST A FULL REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE."

it is probably due to them being too engrossed by the game to go buy junk food.

If only there was some way to solve that problem... I'm sure that somebody must be working on this somewhere.

These are the Proper 3.0.2 patch notes...

PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General

- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no /spit off of the towers.
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive mo

These are the Proper 3.0.2 patch notes...

PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General

- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no /spit off of the towers.
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive mo

PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General

- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no /spit off of the towers.
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received fr

PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
General

- All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
- The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran.Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
- The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your Shave and a Haircut!
- The all new Achievement System has been implemented and the Achievement panel can be accessed via the interface. While many achievements are not retroactive, we have done our best to credit as many as possible. Gamemasters will not be able to grant achievements for past accomplishements.
- Stormwind Harbor is now open for business.
- New towers have been added outside Of Orgrimmar and in Tirisfal Glades. Crews are currently at work to establish a new Zeppelin route to Northrend for your travel pleasure. Please no /spit off of the towers.
- A new entrance is now viewable in the Caverns of Time.
- Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
- Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:
- When casting a spell:
+ The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- When channeling a spell:
+ The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
+ All hits after the second will have no effect.
- Spellpower:
+ All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant âoeincreased spell damage and healingâ such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
# For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
+ Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received fr

But it's right there!

Test Patch Notes Disclaimer: The test realm patch notes only apply to features that exist on the public test realms. We provide these patch notes to players who wish to know what features and changes exist in the test environment in order to more effectively test these features.

To learn more about the Public Test Realm, visit our Test Realm Page.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.4.3

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World's End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

Druids

* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

Hunters

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet's Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

Mages

* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Paladins

* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Priests

* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.

Rogues

* Cheat Death: This talent has be

Test Patch Notes Disclaimer: The test realm patch notes only apply to features that exist on the public test realms. We provide these patch notes to players who wish to know what features and changes exist in the test environment in order to more effectively test these features.

To learn more about the Public Test Realm, visit our Test Realm Page.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.4.3

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World's End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

Druids

* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.

Hunters

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet's Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.

Mages

* Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Paladins

* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Priests

* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.

Rogues

* Cheat Death: This talent has be

You will get 30 days free when you buy a retail copy, or you can download the client for free and get 10 days free from blizzard themselves.

"A contract in which only one side is getting value lacks consideration and is legally invalid."

That was a true statement up until about twenty years ago. Now all one side has to do is show "intent of good will" and they do not have to provide anything at all, even when they actually possess the ability to provide the service.

And you can't sue. You go to arbitration which does not hold the same legal view of a contract that a court of law does.

The agreement has been upheld in arbitration numerous times. To bad none of that arbitration is public.
I quote from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html

"6. Termination. This License Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate the License Agreement at any time by (i) permanently destroying all copies of the Game in your possession or control; (ii) removing the Game Client from your hard drive; and (iii) notifying Blizzard of your intention to terminate this License Agreement. Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason. In such event, you must immediately and permanently destroy all copies of the Game in your possession and control and remove the Game Client from your hard drive. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate. "

You really should go read that EULA because it is everything I said it was and in fact it is more...

This little line right here:
"b. Binding Arbitration. If you and Blizzard are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations, either you or Blizzard may elect to have the Dispute (except those Disputes expressly excluded below) finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration. Any election to arbitrate by one party shall be final and binding on the other. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ABSENT THIS PROVISION, YOU WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL. The arbitration shall be commenced and conducted under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") and, where appropriate, the AAA s Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes ("AAA Consumer Rules"), both of which are available that the AAA website www.adr.org. The determination of whether a Dispute is subject to arbitration shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and determined by a court rather than an arbitrator. Your arbitration fees and your share of arbitrator compensation shall be governed by the AAA Rules and, where appropriate, limited by the AAA Consumer Rules. If such costs are determined by the arbitrator to be excessive, Blizzard will pay all arbitration fees and expenses. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone or online. The arbitrator will make a decision in writing, but need not provide a statement of reasons unless requested by a party. The arbitrator must follow applicable law, and any award may be challenged if the arbitrator fails to do so. Except as otherwise provided in this License Agreement, you and Blizzard may litigate in court to compel arbitration, stay proceeding pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator."

The above means you can't use Blizzard for anything ever and but they can sue you for literally anything, any time.

If you were to go to http://www.adr.org/ as Blizzard Recommends, you'd see this:

Additional AAA services include the design and development of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) systems for corporations, unions, government agencies, law firms, and the courts. The Association also provides elections services as well as education, training, and publications for those seeking a broader or deeper understanding of alternative dispute resolution.

Sounds great huh? Well just who is the AAA?

Never before has one sentence

I'd be hard pressed to name an MMO that didn't launch before it was ready. That includes the current MMO darling child, World of Warcraft, which not only had horrid server problems for months after launch, but was also missing features printed in the manual (World of Warcraft Game Manual, p. 133, para 2 "Battlegrounds") for a good seven months after launch.

Because they are far more draconian than At&T's ever was.

Just saying, most Game Company EULAs actually state that you don't even get a service in return for your payments and that your payments are non-refundable and you have no expectations of privacy and your computer is for all intents and purposes the property of the gaming company for as long as their software resides on your computer...

I wish I was making this up but as you can see here (the most popular online game in the world):
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.shtml
I'm not. And as an even more negative note this EULA actually stood up in court of law.
http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/07/14/blizzard-wins-sj-mdy/


Your RAM is actually Blizzards. You have no right to sue. You have no right to a refund. You have no right to class action. You have no right to communicate to anyone about what Blizzard communicates to you. Because, it is all copyright. That is a huge legal determination.


This brings us back to the topic at hand, AT&T. Because in all honesty, "waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees." these things have already been ruled as legal in several gaming company cases and RIAA cases (which for brevity I did not touch on).

To tell AT&T (and every other company on the planet)that they are breaking the law because they are not using copyright as the rational for their arguments makes absolutely no legal sense whatsoever.

Because the end result is that all company claims against their consumers will be twisted in to copyright claims and therefore automatically upheld...

Because they are far more draconian than At&T's ever was.

Just saying, most Game Company EULAs actually state that you don't even get a service in return for your payments and that your payments are non-refundable and you have no expectations of privacy and your computer is for all intents and purposes the property of the gaming company for as long as their software resides on your computer...

I wish I was making this up but as you can see here (the most popular online game in the world):
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.shtml
I'm not. And as an even more negative note this EULA actually stood up in court of law.
http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/07/14/blizzard-wins-sj-mdy/


Your RAM is actually Blizzards. You have no right to sue. You have no right to a refund. You have no right to class action. You have no right to communicate to anyone about what Blizzard communicates to you. Because, it is all copyright. That is a huge legal determination.


This brings us back to the topic at hand, AT&T. Because in all honesty, "waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees." these things have already been ruled as legal in several gaming company cases and RIAA cases (which for brevity I did not touch on).

To tell AT&T (and every other company on the planet)that they are breaking the law because they are not using copyright as the rational for their arguments makes absolutely no legal sense whatsoever.

Because the end result is that all company claims against their consumers will be twisted in to copyright claims and therefore automatically upheld...

Take off the rose colored glasses yourself; 20 levels of awesome gameplay doesn't make up for core stats simply doing *nothing* when the game launched.

Everyone who played the game that I've talked to stated that the first 20 levels were some of the most amazing 20 levels they've had in an MMO. Then they hit 21, and the game literally died. You had armor with stats that did nothing, you had broken abilities, absolutely no semblance of class balance, and the game was considered by many to be "an unfinished beta at best." Many still think of it the same way.

Strength did nothing. They said "screw it, we'll launch."

What? Really?

You may say that "AoC's character-centric quest line [was] done better" but quite frankly anything after level 20 was and is crap, and sorry, if I wanted to play a game that was 1/4th awesome (1-20) and 3/4ths crap (21-80) then I'd probably be playing AoC.

Nothing even remotely close to "class balance" (it makes WoW at launch look like it had flawless class balance... come on, a priest archtype in AoC being a better AoEer than... everyone? Without needing to heal? Uhhh k), base character stats not doing anything (really?), and every bit of what drew you in from 1-20 absolutely disappearing the second you hit 21.

Then you have their "lolpvp" stance - summarized in some awesome screenshots here (first post, #0, ignore the rest of the thread):

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=6762171037&sid=1&pageNo=1

And this screenshot here:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2425/gms1xv7.jpg

This is supposed to be FFA PvP. And uh... apparently anything more than "a few minutes" of participating in "FFA PvP" is good enough to get you the banhammer.

"So take off the rose colored glasses. WoW wasn't better when it launched."

I don't even... no words. Really?

However, saying that games should be for free or almost for free is stupid.

people will always pay for convenience, so there will always be a market for software sales.. but..

I believe blizzard is a very stupid company then. No no no.. don't look at those profit sheets! they're in horrible danger and their stockholders should abandon them in droves!

how do they stay in business then?

Blogspammy theft. Original post, with humorous updates, is here:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765585510&sid=1

>quote>... now we're going to start working on current events in WOW?

GNN, Gnomeregan News Network, "Crisis at Da Portal!" with Mar'Lee reporting. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/movies.html

There's also a Gadgetzan Times http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/gadgetzantimes/archives.html

>quote>... now we're going to start working on current events in WOW?

GNN, Gnomeregan News Network, "Crisis at Da Portal!" with Mar'Lee reporting. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/movies.html

There's also a Gadgetzan Times http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/gadgetzantimes/archives.html

2-3% of the market is a lot of money at $15 a month.

However, please, do realize that games are typically sold for 6 months and supported for 1 year and 99% on a single platform (Win/XBox). Very few things are developed as cross-platform - and it is NOT because of OpenGL, more like commercial realities (cross-platform development is hard and doesn't make a lot of sense for ~2-3% of the market, especially for an app that will be sold for one season).

Except today's big money hauling games are sub-scription based, +5 year supported commercial platforms. This doesn't eliminate shrink wrapped abandonware any more than Linux killed the proprietary operating system. These games restort to emulation of Direct X to get multi-platform support instead of using OpenGL.

I am developing OpenGL applications for a decade now and all are still running and being used.
How many 10 year old games can you actually get working today?

I'm glad you spent the time to maintain all that code.

All the software I developed "with OpenGL" either uses a graphics engine that switches to DirectX on Windows or is so out of date that finding compilable libraries old enough to match the non-OpenGL pieces is an exercise in futility. I have plenty of 1.2 OpenGL code that is essentially dead.

We see unlockable demos in the shareware arena, but I don't think I've ever seen a big title go this route before, and I don't see why it hasn't happened yet.

You mean like Portal, or World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars, or Final Fantasy XI, or City of Heroes, or etc., etc.?

There are actually drinking games in World of Warcraft. See http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/brewfest/

Games include getting drunk in the various capital cities until you see pink elephants and advertising beer in Ironforge.

Free virtual beer is served on New Years Eve as well.

You don't see players making detailed hand-drawn maps of every level of Portal, complete with precise notes, just so they can solve the puzzles. Gamers today just don't have the patience for it. Even online RPGs, the last stronghold of the fanatical mappers and note-takers, have all given up and provided automatic mapping tools which even a brain-dead cat sleeping on the keyboard could use.

No, instead I see players recording how fast they can get through a level or how few steps they can take (thinking with portals) or how few portals they can use.

And if you think those challenges are easy, go ahead and try them. The speed challenges, especially gold, are extremely difficult and require pretty good reflexes.

They're essentially doing the same thing as before, they're probably just having a lot more fun now.

Compare "Portal" with, say, "Zork" or "The Bard's Tale". The puzzles involved were quite simple and mostly involved wandering around in the dark desperately drawing maps until you found the clue hidden in one corner of a dungeon just so you could answer the riddle one level up and in the far corner, but the level of player involvement is significantly higher.

You don't see players making detailed hand-drawn maps of every level of Portal, complete with precise notes, just so they can solve the puzzles. Gamers today just don't have the patience for it. Even online RPGs, the last stronghold of the fanatical mappers and note-takers, have all given up and provided automatic mapping tools which even a brain-dead cat sleeping on the keyboard could use.

As the article and its accompanying comments mention, the market for involved puzzle games didn't shrink, it just didn't grow with the rest of the industry. While there may still be a market for a few thousand people who like Monkey Island, there are also now millions of people who think that Halo is about as complicated as a game can get before their heads explode. Welcome to today's market.