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| New PvE/PvP Realms |
New realms have been made available today:
On Friday, March 31 at 12:00 PM PST, we're opening the following new realms on brand-new hardware! If exciting new beginnings interest you, don't miss this opportunity to create a character on one of the realms listed below at noon PST tomorrow and begin anew your Azerothian adventures.
Ysera - PVE
Dentarg - PVP
Andorhal - PVP
Executus - PVP
Please also be aware that the following list of realms is on the new Optetron hardware as well. Enjoy!
Anetheron ? PVP
Duskwood ? PVE
Haomarush ? PVP
Scilla ? PVP
Steamwheedle Cartel ? RP
Turalyon ? PVE
Ysondre - PVP
Zuluhed - PVP
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Friday 31st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Purgation Isle - lvl 60 Elite mobs? |
I just spotted this over at the wow europe forums. There seems to be level 56-60 Elite Undead mobs on Purgation Isle after the patch 1.10 -- if you see anything unusual besides that, such as new boss mobs or new content, or quests involved feel free to submit news and screenshots. This change if true is not mentioned in the patch notes.
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Friday 31st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery |
I contacted Luke Johnson -- White Wolf Game developer of the World of Warcraft RPG line -- and he confirmed that World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery will make its scheduled release on April 3. Just four days from now, the book will be available. You may order the hardcover book now for immediate shipping soon as April 3 hits the calendar.
We will add the Content List of the RPG book once it is available. I will also notice everyone when the PDF download becomes available. The PDF is very useful because of its keyword Search Engine (Acrobat Reader) and because oversea/international fans can pay with paypal and get the download right away versus high costs in shipping a physical hardcover.
World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery is written from the point of view of Prospector Brann Bronzebeard and he will describe the geography and history of each notorial zone and region of Northrend, Kalimdor, Undermine, South Seas and Echo Isles. A must-have lorewise! Luke told me there will be new info that is not yet in World of Warcraft MMORPG.
To read a brief content review of what the book will contain read here
Read our interview with Luke Johnson.
Buy the hardcover
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Friday 31st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Wow patch 1.10 Known Issues |
Gamemaster (Wow Europe): "For your information we have compiled a list of the issues that we are currently receiving the most petitions about since patch 1.10.
Known issues that we hope to have resolved shortly
The quest ?Defenders of Darrowshire? is currently not possible to complete. Chromaggus time lapse debuff is currently lowering player?s health more than intended. The shooting animation is not always playing correctly. Nature?s Grace does not proc correctly after spell crits. The Sand Vortexes in the Ossirian the Unscarred ? encounter are currently invisible.
Other issues that we are receiving a lot of tickets about
It is intended that you do not receive experience to money conversion from completing repeatable quests, or quests that require you to hand in a certain amount of money (such as the new armor quests).
A lot of players are experiencing loot problems due to the master looter having an out of date UI. We strongly recommend that you disable all old UIs if you are going to be the master looter for a raid.
Players report issues with chat or receiving LUA errors on their screen. This also is usually caused by an out of date user interface.
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Friday 31st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Patch 1.12 : PvP Catapults in the Horizon? |
Blizzard Rep Eyonix mentioned a couple of features that are scheduled for the future Patch 1.12
Players should also be pleased to know that come patch 1.12 you will be placed in a group upon entering Battlegrounds.
For now, just get yourself into a group. ;)
Also, patch 1.12 will have some awesome PvP stuff, like a cool battleground feature that I know you've all been waiting for!
Is it possible that the long-awaited catapults and building-attacked effects will become available in Patch 1.12? This is speculation, but the hint makes you wonder. To refresh your memory, here is a quote from Blizzard before Closed Beta, dated September 16, 2004:
"Something long-term we want to add to battlegrounds to make them even more fun are siege vehicles. We'll begin implementing them after WoW ships, but the intention is to give players catapults and other siege vehicles, and then increase the challenge when it comes to razing the opposing side's town. Once siege vehicles are in, the mechanism for conquering the other side will be to destroy their buildings and not just to kill their NPCs." - source
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Thursday 30th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Background Downloader is Broken |
Seems Patch 1.10 wasn't all honey and sweet after all. The Blizzard Background Downloader has a broken feature: It can't disable the background downloader because preferences won't save. A Blizzard Dev offers a temporary workaround that requires you to download registry files into your Windows Registry. Scary o's! MichaelKN : The Background Downloader simply pre-fetches the patch data (if available) so that on patch day, you will have the majority of the patch already downloaded. The data will not be applied to the game until patch day. Also, the Background Downloader will only launch and run when/while you are playing World of Warcraft. If you do not wish to use the Background Downloader, you may disable it in it's preference menu - you may re-enable it again later if you ever change your mind.
*If you have a firewall installed, it will most likely warn you with a pop-up message on when the Background Downloader starts.
We will release an FAQ regarding the Background Downloader in the near future. Be sure to keep an eye on our sticky for any updated news.
DatTH: That part of it is currently broken. I have posted registry settings that will disable it properly. We are currently aware of an issue where the Background Downloader won't save a user's preference settings. We have some registry keys available as a temporary workaround. To apply these fixes, just download and apply these registry keys. They will take effect the next time the Background Downloader starts up.
Disabling the Background Downloader: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/disableBGD.reg
Enabling the Background Downloader: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/enableBGD.reg
Disabling Peer to Peer alone: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/disableP2P.reg
Enabling Peer to Peer alone: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/enableP2P.reg
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Thursday 30th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Wow Scam Alert! |
We have obtained new information relating to recent scam attempts e-mailed to World of Warcraft customers. These e-mails take the form of an ?official contact? to the player requesting specific account and password information. In this specific case the e-mail address is made to seem as though it is coming from security@blizzard.com
Please be aware that any e-mails sent to you from security@blizzard.com are not from Blizzard Entertainment. If at any time you are unsure of the validity of an e-mail that was sent to you concerning your World of Warcraft account, please e-mail billing@blizzard.com
Blizzard will never request your password through e-mail, ever. More information on various scam attempts and what you can do to protect yourself can be found on our Billing Support site here
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Thursday 30th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| New Blizzard Background Downloader |
With the 1.10 patch Blizzard has integrated a new content delivery system called the Blizzard Background Downloader. This program will run seamlessly with World of Warcraft and download upcoming content prior to the release of a patch. With use of this program a minimal amount of data will be needed during the next actual patch release and help to decrease the amount of time spent downloading the patch. The Blizzard Background Downloader uses the same protocols and connection methods as the Blizzard Downloader, some customers may need to configure their various network protection programs and hardware to take full advantage of it.
Additional information can be found on our Technical Support site here
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Wednesday 29th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| 24-hour Downtime Compensation |
Blizzard has issued a 24-hour compensation for the prolonged downtime suffered yesterday after the Patch 1.10 was released.Drysc: "An issue occurred while applying the 1.10 content patch yesterday that prevented the realms from going live at the end of our scheduled maintenance window. To compensate players for any inconvenience caused by this extended downtime, we will be issuing a 24-hour time extension to all players with an active account. Thank you for your patience during today's maintenance; we hope you enjoy all the new content in patch 1.10!"
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Wednesday 29th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Roleplaying Fanfic Contest Update |
Two new members of the Rp-pvp.com Forum Community have submitted entries to the Roleplaying Fanfic Contest. We want to share the contest entries with our audience to enjoy them and motivate you. We wish to stimulate the Roleplaying community with fun and creative fanfics. Read both entries and start writing yours to join the contest. Four winners will get a downloadable eBook PDF of the World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game -- sponsored by DriveThruRPG.
If you wish to join the Contest, read the rules. The Contest expires on June 1st at 11:00pm EST (-5GMT).
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Wednesday 29th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Patch 1.10 - Patch Notes |
World of Warcraft Patch 1.10 is now available for download. The most notable additions and improvements introduced in this new patch:
- Weather Effects
- New High Level Armor Sets
- Priest Talent Update
- Quest Experience to Gold Conversion at Level 60
- Improved Flight Paths
Below you can read the Patch Notes
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| More Information |
Tuesday 28th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Patch 1.10 Tomorrow |
Tomorrow's weekly scheduled maintenance will begin at 3:00 AM PST in order to prepare for the 1.10 content patch. The following list of realms will remain down until 2:00 PM PST as additional maintenance is required. All other realms will be back online at approximately 11:00 AM PST.
Anetheron
Duskwood
Haomarush
Norgannon
Scilla
Steamwheedle Cartel
Thrall
Turalyon
Ysondre
Zuluhed
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Tuesday 28th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Blizzard sued by Unauthorized Strategy Guide |
 Blizzard is being sued on a lawsuit filed by a player that sold unauthorized strategy guides of World of Warcraft on eBay. The guy says that Blizzard blocked his auctions by harrassing eBay to close down his auctions. Whoa? This is a very bizzare case. The guy is selling unauthorized copies of his strategy guides and on top sues Blizzard ...
During several months beginning last August, Kopp sold several hundred copies of his guide, which contains tips on playing the game and accumulating points, at roughly $15 apiece. Weeks after his first auction went live, Blizzard, Vivendi, and the ESA began sending repeated takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), asking eBay to yank the auctions because of copyright and trademark infringement concerns. The auction giant's general policy is to halt auctions when it receives such complaints and to suspend a user's account after it racks up a certain number of warnings.
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Saturday 25th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| World of Warcraft: Shattered Kingdoms Board Game |
This first expansion for World of Warcraft: The Board Game contains hundreds of new cards, both expanding the base game and introducing several innovative concepts including a new item deck that rewards players with interesting trinkets and artifacts and a new quest deck that puts a bounty on independent creatures. Class decks also receive new powers and talents while Overlords gain powerful new resources." To Retail for: $19.95
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Friday 24th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| 4 New Realms on March 23 |
Blizzard announced that on Thursday, March 23 at 12:00 PM PST they will be launching four brand new realms! These realms will be available for all players to start fresh adventures in Azeroth!
- Turalyon - PvE
- Haomarush - PvP
- Scilla - PvP
- Ysondre - PvP
You better start thinking of a good name for your new character before someone else reserves it first!
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Thursday 23rd 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired! |
Wired.com published an article about an IT Engineer who applied for a Senior Director of Engineering Operations position at Yahoo! -- former CNET backend creator -- who snagged the job position with an edge by mentioning to be a Guild Master in World of Warcraft.
Wired: "the process of becoming an effective World of Warcraft guild master amounts to a total-immersion course in leadership. A guild is a collection of players who come together to share knowledge, resources, and manpower. To run a large one, a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Guilds routinely splinter over petty squabbles and other basic failures of management; the master must resolve them without losing valuable members, who can easily quit and join a rival guild. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace." Thanks Vereesa@Argent Dawn
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Thursday 23rd 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Wow Dance Animations |
Wow Europe released a new fun page. You can preview some of the many different dance animations in World of Warcraft and even download animated images of your favorite dances. Simply select a race and gender from the drop-down menus and watch them get into the groove.
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Thursday 23rd 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| The Loa gods Lore |
Added a new page sharing the names of the known Loa gods, and some of the abilities they grant to Shadow Hunters. As more info from quests and tablets are found, this new section will be updated. There may be more Loa gods not included in the list.
If you wish to help, get a screenshot of what the Tablets of Zul'Gurub say. We need screenshots from tablets in:
- Zul'Gurub
- Zul'Farrak
- Zanza tablet at Yojamba Isle
Submit a link to the screenshot of the tablet-text Here
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Thursday 23rd 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Video Games Live: Massive Meet & Greet at GDC |
Video Games Live? announces Massive meet & greet Gathering and pre-show festival for San Jose
Meet & Greet with over 20 Game Designers and Composers to Take Place after Concert
Pre-Events Include Costume Contest and Guitar Hero? Competition with unique prizes
Los Angeles ? March 20, 2006 ? Renowned video game composers, Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, announced the pre- and post-show festival events planned for the March 24th San Jose, CA performance of Video Games Live? presented by the Game Developers Conference. Created and produced by Tallarico and Wall?s production company, Mystical Stone Entertainment LLC, Video Games Live? features music from the most popular video games performed by top orchestras and choirs around the world, combining exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists and unique interactive segments to create an explosive one-of-a-kind entertainment experience.
Video Games Live? is an immersive concert event and industry celebration. This special performance will be the first time video game music has been performed in San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley, widely regarded as ?the birthplace of video games?. To commemorate the start of the new 2006 World Tour, Video Games Live? is pulling out all the stops and opening the doors early to present a pre-show festival from 7:00 ? 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 24th at the San Jose Civic Auditorium which is FREE to all ticket holders. Tickets ($20 - $55) are on sale now at all Ticketmaster outlets, or online at Ticketmaster.com. Groups of 12 or more are eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 408.999.5841 for further details.
The highlight of the festival will be a post-show meet-and-greet where fans can interact with renowned game designers and composers from all over the world. Sponsored by ASCAP, the Recording Academy (Grammys?) and APM Music, the event will feature game industry luminaries including:
- Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Metroid Prime, Tony Hawk, Advent Rising)
- Jack Wall (Myst III, Myst IV, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Jade Empire)
- Jason Hayes (Warcraft series)
- Marty O?Donnell (Halo, Halo 2)
- Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal franchise)
- David Perry (Earthworm Jim, Aladdin, MDK, Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo)
- Keith Robinson (President, Programmer & Game Designer ? Intellivision)
- Vince Desi (Postal, Postal 2)
- Inon Zur (Prince of Persia: Two Thrones, EverQuest, SOCOM 2)
- Will Littlejohn (Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, BladeRunner)
- Gerard Marino (God Of War)
- Chance Thomas (King Kong, X-Men, Lord of the Rings)
- Tim Larkin (Myst series)
- Richard Jacques (Headhunter, Outrun 2)
- Cris Velasco (God Of War, Splinter Cell: Double Agent)
- Sascha Dikiciyan (Quake series, Splinter Cell 4: Double Agent)
- Tom Salta (Tom Clancy?s Ghost Recon, Need For Speed 2, Cold Fear)
- Irwin (electronic percussionist for VGL, Beastie Boys & Rob Navarro)
- Martin Leung (The Video Game Pianist)
- Laura Karpman (EverQuest II series), and others!
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The pre-show festival will include a competition sponsored by RedOctane featuring the award winning smash hit Guitar Hero?. The contestant with the highest score (song to be announced at the show) will receive a unique one-of-a-kind limited edition Guitar Hero? Cherry SG Controller signed by video game composers and designers. Other pre-show festivities include a costume contest presented by 1UP.com, where audience members will come dressed as their favorite video game character. The winner of the costume contest, as judged by the audience, will receive a Video Games Live? prize pack which includes an ATI video card and signed memorabilia. And speaking of costumes, attendees will want to be on the look out for their favorite video game characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and others.
Other prizes throughout the evening include a $2,500 Ferrari laptop courtesy of AMD which will be given away on stage during the Interactive Symphony segment, starring one of the most beloved classic arcade games of all time, Frogger, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Two audience members will compete for 90 seconds while the orchestra plays along, changing the musical score on-the-fly depending on what the contestants are doing on screen. This unique interaction with a live symphony has only ever been attempted and performed at Video Games Live?.
The audience will also be treated to a special live performance by pianist Martin Leung ? best known as ?The Video Game Pianist? (formerly ?The Blindfolded Pianist?). Leung became an Internet celebrity after over 40 million people downloaded a video of him playing tunes from the classic Mario games while blindfolded (http://videogamepianist.com). He will be premiering his special Final Fantasy? piano arrangement at this concert, performing over ten Final Fantasy? favorites.
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Tuesday 21st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Four New Realms Opening |
Today at 12:00 PM PST, Blizzard launched four new realms for all players to start fresh adventures in Azeroth! Players will be able to create new characters immediately with a choice of three realm types: PvP, PvE and RP PvE.
- Duskwood - PvE
- Zuluhed - PvP
- Anetheron - PvP
- Steamwheedle Cartel - RP PvE
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Tuesday 21st 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Blizzard Devs vs. Players Videos |
Recently, Blizzard held a Battleground Contest on the World of Warcraft Patch 1.10 Public Test Servers to test the new server infrastructure. Note that participants of the contest will have a chance to win Burning Crusade expansion beta slots.
Eyonix posted two videos showing a fight between Blizzard Developers and players in Warsong Gulch Battlegrounds. This is what Eyonix had to say about the exciting encounter:
Eyonix: " Good job on these videos, guys. We had a blast. Next time, we'd appreciate if you guys would play fair. Clearly the alliance was using hax, did you not see the vids!" :P
Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3
Drysc: "We knew something was up when their entire team came rushing out naked, so we decided to have a little fun." :)
Faizaniel: "Even Lord Kazzak can't give Blizzard the win against a bunch of naked night elves?" ;)
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Saturday 18th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Xfire $20,000 Machinima Movie Contest |
Xfire and a mystery sponsor are proud to announce the Fan Film Fest, the latest machinima contest on Xfire. With $20,000 in cash and prizes, this contest will bring out the best efforts from the ever growing machinima community.
A good number of the details for this event are still classified. What we can tell you is that we have a web page that will contain all of the information to you as it is revealed.
This contest is unique in the fact that there will be two deadlines (think of it as two contests).
"Early Bird Special" entry will reward those entrants who can submit their work by the early deadline. The main contest will dole out a lump sum of cash to a select group of winners.
We are launching the contest in this "mystery" fashion because we want the machinima community to be ready to go upon official launch. A few extra days of brainstorming always helps when $20,000 is on the line.
The web page is located Here.
Please use the Xfire forums to post questions about the contest.
Cheers,
Frederic Descamps- Business Development & Marketing
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Friday 17th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
| Are Linux Wine or Logitech Keyboard G15 Bannable? |
After a player's report published by Slashdot.org, it is become of very critical concern to many World of Warcraft players whether these two topics could be a reason to be banned due to Third-party programs or non-supported OS.
Linux is a no-brainer. Blizzard has said in the past that they do not offer customer support to Linux, and at this point do not have plans of a Linux version of World of Warcraft. Today, we emailed Blizzard to find out if playing World of Warcraft under Linux Wine could cause a player to be banned by a GM. The answer was no.
Linux users may breath more relax. However, there will be soon an official statement from Blizzard. It was not clear whether as a press release, or as a Terms of Service (TOS) / EULA update. Expect a follow up soon on the Linux controversy.
Concerning the Logitech G15 Keyboard w/LCD, today a Blizzard Europe Representative -- Aeus -- responded the point of view of Blizzard concerning the use of the keyboard.
Gorgeous@Shadowsong: "I've just been bought a Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard by my girlfriend as an early christmas pressie. This keyboard, amongst other things, allows the recording of macros, i.e. multiple keystrokes assigned to a single keypress. As far as I can tell this doesn't let you do anything that you couldn't do with a normal, in-game WoW macro except it allows repeating or looping of the macros it records.
The drivers for this keyboard include 4 .exe files running in the background at all times, most of which are driving the LCD display on the keyboard:
LCDClock.exe
LCDMedia.exe
LCDMon.exe
LCDCore.exe
I'd like to know for certain whether this keyboard and it's associated driver files are considered allowable under the WoW EULA/ToC"
Blizzard Representative Aeus: "We have looked into this matter and haven?t found reasonable cause to disallow usage of its functions for use in world of Warcraft.
We do, however, reserve the right to come back to this statement at a later point, at which we will inform our players."
We did not discuss with Blizzard the ban suffered by the player from the Slashdot article, because it is against Blizzard Policy to discuss Disciplinary Actions. However, from the answer we got concerning Linux Wine, and the forum reply concerning Logitech G15 Keyboard, we can simply conclude that the player was banned for playing unattended. Most likely a Game Master (GM) contacted the player -- who admitted to be watching TV while playing -- did not answer the GM message, tagging him as been playing unattended, which is a GM routinary botting behavior procedure to make sure real players are indeed behind the characters. If the player does not reply back, and its character is actively playing by itself, then you get in trouble. It was a very sad and unlucky event, and I wish the player was given a second chance. However, Linux Wine and Logitech G15 were not the cause for his ban. Hope everyone learns from this and never leave their characters playing unattended. It may get you banned.
UPDATE: 3-17-2006
As said before, Blizzard told us there would be an official statement concerning Logitech G15 Keyboard. Here is the follow up statement:
Tyren: "Recently, players expressed some concern over the use of programmable gaming peripherals while playing World of Warcraft. We want to make sure it's clear that creating hotkeys for certain actions in the game is ok. However, if these peripherals are used to automate gameplay to the point where the player is able to conduct repeated actions in the game without paying attention, then that will constitute a violation of our game policies. The use of sustained automated play grants an unfair advantage over players who earn their achievements by actively playing through the game as it was designed. In the interest of maintaining an even playing field for all players, we will investigate reports of automated play and take action as needed to prevent this from occurring in the game."
Will it come down to GM doing bot testing like in other games, sending the player a tell, if they don't respond/answer correctly they get banned? Or will it all just be tests for physical hardware/programs?
Tyren: "Very valid question.
Without going into specifics, the main part involves human interaction. We can't be more specific on what that interaction is, as it may give "botters" more insight into how they can avoid detection."
Hopefully, there is an official statement soon concerning World of Warcraft on Linux Wine.
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| More Information |
Friday 17th 2006f March 2006 |
Posted by Medievaldragon |
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