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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Why did WoW Insider switch domains, again?
by Adam Holisky 
Sep 16th 2010 at 1:00PM
Many people asked:
Why did WoW Insider switch domains?
As we've said a few times, we're now called WoW Insider, living at wow.joystiq.com. A lot of people have questions about this change, and I hope to answer some of them.
First and foremost, WoW.com and Joystiq.com are both very strong websites that have a long history. Neither are going away any time soon, and both have a ton of great people working for them. WoW.com has always been part of the "Joystiq gaming network," which in turn has always been part of the Weblogs subdivision at Aol (until the subdivision was merged with the greater Aol brands -- no idea why, it's a corporate thing).
People are screaming that we've done a corporate merger with Joystiq. We haven't; we've always been a part of them. People think Aol has taken over. They haven't; they've always been the ones with the domain. People think that Blizzard sued us and got the domain. They haven't. Aol will be doing something else with the wow.com domain; I just have no idea what it is.
The simple fact of the matter is that WoW Insider and Joystiq are consolidating under one large brand and site to make an even larger site. If WoW.com got 1 billion hits a day and Joystiq.com got 1 billion hits a day, the two combined would stand to get 2 billion hits a day -- and well, kids, that's some real potential money to be made right there. Money that puts food on my table at night and let's me see a doctor for this rash, so I'm all for it.
No one on staff has gotten laid off over this, no one has seen their milk money taken away, etc. ...
Everything is OK -- don't panic. We're not.
Bui asked:
So with the Cataclysm release really only months away now, what old zone do you think is worth seeing first ? What really sums up the "Deathwing just tore the world a new one" feel that we're supposed to be getting when we come back from Northrend?
Badlands first, then Desolace.
Jprich asked:
Do you think Blizzard will ever lock down event starters (Jaina in Mount Hyjal, for example ) so that only the raid leader or those with assist can start events?
That's too good of an idea for Blizzard to do. Shhhh ... don't tell them.
Arkonn asked:
Is it possible to complete both Zalazane's Fall and Operation: Gnomeregan if one were to partake in a faction transfer?
Yes, but you only get one achievement.
TLDR Guy asked:
Did Blizzard buy out the wow.com name and force you guys to move?
For the last time ... no.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 14)
Icesnake Sep 16th 2010 1:14PM
Uhm. No. If you combine the two domains, you still get less than 2 billion hits total, because some people - probably the majority - were hitting both domains before, and now they're only going to hit one.
Did someone in Marketing fail Basic Statistics 101?
Zef Sep 16th 2010 1:28PM
I think they mean page hits when referring to hits. So someone who visited both joystiq and wow.com posts in the past would indeed now be contributing to larger hits on the joystiq domain on a whole.
(cutaia) Sep 16th 2010 1:39PM
You assumed he was talking about 2 billion people?
Icesnake Sep 16th 2010 2:48PM
Of course not, that would be a fairly stupid assumption.
Docp Sep 16th 2010 4:19PM
He's still right though, they will get less because now they won't be getting all the hits from people accidentally finding this blog when searching for an official site. Equally when stuck onto the Joystiq name many people won't realize this is a dedicated wow site and instead merely think it some small corner of a larger games site and pass over it trying to find a 'dedicated' blog.
Josh Sep 17th 2010 7:06AM
Don't make Cutaia angry by implying something bad about his blog, or his disembodied head will come get you!
bspauldin Sep 16th 2010 1:16PM
Are the 310% mounts from Ulduar still available in 4.0.1?
Josin Sep 16th 2010 3:48PM
Probably. They've said they would provide ample notice before removing any achievement-related mounts.
Josh Sep 17th 2010 7:06AM
I just got mine last night, woohoo!
Docseuzz Sep 16th 2010 1:14PM
Did Blizzard force you to.... ...
Seriously though - I am getting 10-20 phishing emails a week at this point - mostly caught through spam filter thankfully. How are the phishers getting my email address in the first place? Because I have to ask - does wow.com... Wow Insider sell their member lists to some marketing firm (funding you getting that rash looked at), that then sells it to phishing scammers?
Adoisin Sep 16th 2010 1:18PM
I've wondered too, how people get my email and know I play WoW.
Icesnake Sep 16th 2010 1:19PM
Nobody has to sell your email address any more. The spammers use pwned PCs to send billions of emails to randomly-generated addresses every day; I could show you the algorithm. The point is that probably 90% of the email sent doesn't get delivered anywhere, and out of the 10% deliverable, 90% of that goes to the spam folder, and out of the remaining 10%, less than 1/10 of 1% falls for the scam. Sadly, that still equates to 10,000 morons a day giving their username/password combos to the Chinese spammers, who then use it to make money at your expense.
- aka Morely Dotes
Chief Woodchuck
Lumber Cartel
Google me if you wonder WTF I'm talking about.
Pyromelter Sep 16th 2010 1:34PM
Battle-net RealID. It makes your e-mail much more available. The spam emails have increased exponentially since RealID
Neodarkmatter Sep 16th 2010 1:51PM
@Pyromelter: How? Is there a way to query what my real id email address is in game? I am curious because I have friends that gave me their real id but didn't write it down and don't have their email address.
Now I can see using your email address as a login to WoW to be an exploit and way to get your email address. I will have to find the source but remember reading about how when you login to WoW that it isn't encrypted so your user name and password are in plain text. This was a few years ago so correct me if this has changed.
SpaceGoatPriest Sep 16th 2010 2:35PM
I know wow.com nor blizzard sells the email address. I have gotten 1 phishing email in the 4 years of playing WoW. Of course I only get about 4-5 spam a day (and my email account is about 6 years old).
Lately most of the spam I get is for cheap prescription pills. Penis enlargement spam is sooo two years ago.
Gnorky Sep 16th 2010 3:14PM
86% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 16th 2010 3:17PM
And there are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't.
Tokkar Sep 16th 2010 3:30PM
I get phishing emails as well...on an email account I have never used on here; however, I HAVE used that email account on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com where I signed up for a 10-day free trial...you know, back in the Paleolithic era...and I never signed up for the account with that email, but used a different one. The email address becoming available? Look at Blizzard, not here.
jdduenas Sep 16th 2010 4:43PM
I used to get them all the time because I used my primary email address as my battlnet account. Then I set up an email account with a domain I bought and haven't gotten one there yet. I do still get them at my personal email though :(
Obviously not everyones going to drop money on a domain/host (I already had both), but try using a different email address for wow than your personal
Hanak Sep 16th 2010 9:25PM
I got some crap from Facebook because I used the same email at both places. Apparently there's a way to search for you there if you use the RealID-feature.
Solution: registered two new emails, one for b-net and one for Facebook, deleted all the others from both places. Didn't get anything new after that.