The Wow Blog

World Of Warcraft Online Atlas

Blizzard has announced the new World of Warcraft Online Atlas. The Atlas should help players get around in the world a whole lot better.

The World of Warcraft Online Atlas is here! The new Online Atlas is an informative resource to help you navigate the many locations and regions of Azeroth and Outland using an intuitive Flash interface. The Atlas has two display modes:

Detailed Region Info: See all the regions of Azeroth and Outland by clicking the minimap on the upper left. Each region is marked with cities, towns, dungeons, and other points of interest. Clicking on each marker displays additional information — for example, clicking on a town shows you what resources are available there, such as trainers, flightmasters, and repair merchants. Detailed capital city maps are also available from each continent’s drop-down menu.

Customized Region Info: Clicking on the Customized Region Info tabs displays an overlay on the world map highlighting only the particular type of information you select. For example, clicking on the Transportation tab brings up all the flight paths and boat/zeppelin stops in the world, and the Region Levels filter displays the appropriate level range for all regions in the world.

We hope you’ll find the new Online Atlas handy in your World of Warcraft adventures!

Check it out: Atlas

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Avoiding Keyloggers - World Of Warcraft

Here’s a post worth reading for anyone who plays World of Warcraft and takes their security seriously. You can avoid keyloggers if you’re careful.

There are numerous things you can do to check the intergrity of a post and links within it and these include:

1) Before clicking links, make sure that a reputable hosting site has been used. For example, Image Shack.

2) Ignore the content of the post. Previously, it was possible to identify potential keyloggers via bad grammar and written language and the general content of the post. Now however, keyloggers have started posting on issues that genuinly do effect the player base and as such, people have been fooled into clicking links.

3) If it is a server forum, check the character that is posting the links. If the character is posting from another server it is best to exercise caution when clicking links.

4) Check the posting character’s post history if you don’t trust the links that they provide. In a large proportion of cases, a vast quantity of posts containing the same content and a link will mean that the poster is a keylogger.

5) Check the spelling of what look like legitimate links. For example, the “o” in World of Warcraft may be replaced with a “0″ (zero) in order to trick you into click the link.

6) Check replies in the thread. In most cases, another member of the community will highlight a suspisous post and if this is the case, a report should be made.

Make sure to read the whole thing for more great tips.

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World of Warcraft Trading Card Game

Today this product was announced: “World of Warcraft(R): The Art of the Trading Card
Game”, which will feature artwork created for the highly popular World of
Warcraft Trading Card Game. This should appeal to fans of the game.

World of Warcraft: The Art of the Trading Card Game will feature a collection of sketches, paintings and finished artwork highlighting a selection of World of Warcraft’s most valiant heroes, devastating spellcasters and bloodthirsty creatures created by some of today’s top fantasy artists. These artists include Todd McFarlane (Spawn), Greg Staples (Judge Dredd), Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai (InQuest Gamer magazine’s “Artists of the Year” recipients), Marcelo Vignali (Disney Animation), and Todd Lockwood (Forgotten Realms), among others.
“World of Warcraft is a global phenomenon that boasts a large base of people who not only actively play the online game and TCG, but who also really enjoy the artwork in the games,” said Tim Muret, Vice President of Upper Deck Authenticated. “We wanted to release a book for these players as well as celebrate the great work of these artists.”
Insightful forewords are given by Blizzard’s Senior Art Director, Samwise Didier, and Art Lead Glenn Rane. Jeremy Cranford, Art Acquisitions Manager for Upper Deck Entertainment, provides the book’s introduction.

For more information: click here.

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Possible World Of Warcraft Outage October 19th

Just a heads up. They say their won’t be any downtime, but never know.

Our internet service provider (ISP) will be performing backend maintenance on Friday October 19, 2007 from 10:01 PM PDT to Saturday October 20, 2007 4:00 AM PDT. We do not anticipate any service impact, and will be watching realm stability and performance closely.

Keep an eye out.

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World Of Warcraft Coming To A Console Near You?

Not really, but now there’s a way to play the game on your PC.

A new application called SwitchBlade brings World of Warcraft a tiny bit closer to console gaming by making it possible to play it on your PC with a 360 controller. The software preconfigures WoW’s “most popular” commands to the controller buttons, but if those don’t suit your fancy you can reconfigure them to meet your needs.

At the moment, WoW is the only game that supports SwitchBlade. Future versions of the application are expected to support more games and other controllers. You can download SwitchBlade from Xfire for free.

I can’t imagine anyone getting too excited about this news, but you never know. Would you play WOW on your PC?

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Interoperability For World Of Warcraft And Others Sought

Interoperability has done a great job of improving tech industries before, so now the biggest companies in the tech industry are discussing ways to make it happen in virtual world’s.

Unfortunately for those who like that notion of interoperability, it’s not going to be happening just yet. But a group of representatives from some of the biggest and most powerful technology companies on earth–including IBM, Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Google and Sony, as well as from leading virtual-world developers like Second Life publisher Linden Lab, the Multiverse Network, Mindark and others–is hoping to change that in the not too distant future.

The first really public shot in this battle was fired Wednesday when Linden Lab and IBM announced their intention to work toward a day when virtual-world users can port a single virtual identity from one service to another.

It sounds like a reasonable idea, but there is no progress towards interoperability being achieved yet.

Do you think it’s a good idea?

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World Of Warcraft Composer Planning Concert

If you can’t get enough of WOW music, then you’re in luck. Jason Hayes, the genius behind World of Warcraft’s music will be performing live in Oslo.

JMP Productions, Inc. today announced that American video game composer Jason Hayes will attend the PLAY! concert on October 26, 2007 in Oslo, joining his colleagues Joel Eriksson, Leon Willett, Rony Barrak and Swedish power metal act MACHINAE SUPREMACY. Jason’s music from the video game World of Warcraft will be performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic Choir.

Jason Hayes is currently working as Music Director for NC Soft the video game company. In his career as a professional composer he created highly acclaimed soundtracks for Blizzard’s most popular worlds of StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft. His music from World of Warcraft has been a permanent fixture in the PLAY! program since the premiere concert in Chicago 2006. For many years, Jason Hayes has been one of the most famous names in the American video game composition scene.

Says Jason Michael Paul: “We are extremely proud to be able to perform Jason’s works as part of PLAY! Jason is a talented musician and composer who has contributed a great deal to our program and to the evolution of video game music for that matter.”

So now you can hear a whole symphony of those remarkable WOW sounds.

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World Of Warcraft Usage Declined In September

From August to September, World of Warcraft saw an 18% decline in hours played. The reasons for the decline are probably obvious.

Average hours spent by Xfire users daily playing World of Warcraft have dropped by nearly 18 per cent from August numbers, according to data from the community and data application for the month of September.

It sets a pattern which is mirrored across many of the other top ten MMOs, with second-placed Guild Wars showing a 13 per cent drop and third-placed Silkroad Online falling over 27 per cent.

One of the likely main reasons for the drop is the end of the summer holidays for schools and colleges across Europe and the US.

Of course that’s the reason. So no need to be alarmed just yet if you’re Blizzard.

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Toyota Hits World Of Warcraft

The latest real product to hit World Of Warcraft is the Toyota Tacoma. A nice red Tacoma isn’t going to just lay down and die. In fact it ends with:

“Did you see me lay down the law? I am the lawgiver!”

To watch the commercial in its entirety, Click here.

Good stuff!

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The9 Is Up As World Of Warcraft Sets Record

World of Warcraft has set a new record, with over 800,000 people simultaneously connected to, and playing, the game. The9 operates the game in China, and is having a great year based on the success of the game.

The9 operates the popular game in China, and said the player peak occurred after the company’s Sept. 6 launch of a game expansion pack called “The Burning Crusade.”

American depositary shares of Shanghai-based The9 gained $1.46, or 4.9 percent, to $31.36 in afternoon trading. During the past year, the stock has moved between $20.86 and $52.43.

The expansion pack adds more features such as new lands to the game, and has drawn both current and new players, the company said.

With “Wrath of the Lich King” coming soon, it’s possible a new record is right on the horizon.

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