Posts with tag bbc

Warlords of Draenor launch woes featured on BBC's Watchdog

by Matthew Rossi Nov 28th 2014 at 3:00PM

We all remember the launch. Even Blizzard admits it wasn't the smoothest, to the point where we were offered five days off our subs and an apology from J. Allen Brack. That's not something Blizzard does very often anymore, and it signifies that yes, this was a pretty big deal in terms of launch screwups. Ironically, for some of us (like myself) it was a pretty smooth launch overall. But for some of us it was so bad that they complained to the BBC, as the above clip showcases.

Incgamers has a long article about the show Watchdogs on the BBC that goes into detail about the piece and its conclusions for the Warlords launch. I feel forced to agree that Watchdogs doesn't seem to have tried very hard here - their example of someone not being able to play WoW is someone on an ancient computer running around Ashran, and he's level 100, so... he played sometime. It's definitely an interesting time to be a World of Warcraft player, as the ten year old MMO seems to regaining cultural relevance with a vengeance lately. I don't think anybody's surprised that the launch troubles have been a highly discussed issue, but this seems like a new extreme to me.

Filed under: Warlords of Draenor

Internet Explorer exploit targets game passwords

by Mike Schramm Dec 16th 2008 at 2:20PM

Is anyone still using Internet Explorer on a computer where they have control of the software? The browser is so targeted and so flawed, and there are so many worthwhile and free alternatives that it's almost silly to continue using Microsoft's monster of a browser. But if you still are, watch out -- the BBC says that Microsoft has announced another vulnerability, and this time it could be used to obtain "game passwords," like your account information for World of Warcraft.

The good news is that, like most virus scares (ever notice that all of the virus warnings come from companies that happen to make their money on antivirus software? In this case, it's Trend Micro, spreading as much FUD as they can), this warning is probably overblown -- even if you are using a browser full of holes like IE, you have to wander off your beaten path of trusted sites to get in trouble. So don't click random links or follow spambait on the forums or in your email, and you'll probably be fine. But again, installing and using another browser is so easy (and will help you so much in the long run) that you might as well give up IE anyway.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in! And yes, I used the old login screen for this post's picture. But don't you kind of miss it?

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard

Compulsive gaming a social problem, not an addiction

by Alex Ziebart Nov 25th 2008 at 8:00PM

Slowly but surely, people are finally starting to gain an actual understanding of gaming, and it's a nice thing to see. The BBC recently reported on gaming addiction with some insight from Keith Bakker, the head of a clinic in Europe targeted at helping gamers. 90% of gamers who spend long hours gaming, he says, aren't addicts at all and addiction counseling isn't the right treatment. Compulsive gaming is a social problem, not a psychological problem.

This is a sentiment many gamers (the non-compulsive kind, mind you) have held for a really long time. Games aren't the problem for young gamers. Poor parental care is a problem, environment is a problem. Communication is important. Healthy environments are important. Games for teenagers tend to be an escape, a place to go where you don't necessarily need to deal with real problems at that age, like social issues, personal troubles, stress and anxiety.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items

BBC: WoW's patches may push some over the bandwidth limit

by Mike Schramm Oct 20th 2008 at 3:00PM

We've posted a few times already on the bandwidth limits recently introduced by some ISPs, and in general we've decided that WoW doesn't use nearly enough bandwidth to get you in trouble with your Internet Service Provider. That's likely still true, but as this columnist at the BBC found out, if you're close to the limit, this month's 2gb patch might have been enough to put you over the top. Generally, while the WoW connection does require a strong bandwidth hookup, it won't use too much bandwidth sending data back and forth. But patches and other downloads definitely add to the total, and on a patch like 3.0.2, you're looking at a lot of data flying back and forth.

I'll still maintain it won't get you near the limit -- if this columnist really did have a 25gb limit, the 2gb download was still just a fraction (he's been downloading a lot of other stuff, seems to me). So it's not time to start worrying yet -- if your ISP does send you a letter, then you can look at your internet usage, and see, if like this columnist, it's time to switch ISPs.

But he's got another point, and that is that gaming is clearly having a large effect on computers and technology in general. Would we be fulfilling Moore's Law every two years if we didn't have 3D graphics that needed upgrading? Would high bandwidth connections be as prevalent today around the world if it wasn't for games like WoW that required a high bandwith hookup? Gaming is affecting the basic technologies and economies of the Internet these days, for better or worse.

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Making money

Blizzard wins $6 million in court case with MMO Glider

by Alex Ziebart Oct 1st 2008 at 11:00AM

Another chapter of the Blizzard versus Glider story has come to a close. Blizzard and MDY Industries have been going at it over Glider since 2006, in a battle that's been rather important. Not only has it been about Glider doing something wrong, it's been about how well an EULA will hold up in court. That's something the entire gaming industry, especially MMOs, have their eyes on. If Blizzard had lost, it would have had a negative impact across the entire industry.

Blizzard is most certainly not losing. According to BBC News (among other sources), they just won $6 million from MDY Industries, which is less than what was expected of them. This isn't their first victory in the war, but it's the first involving money. Blizzard could still appeal the ruling, so it may not necessarily be over, though I personally think the point has been made as far as damages. There are still further chapters in the story that await, because they'll be in court again in January of 2009 to resolve further issues.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories

by Dan O'Halloran Mar 18th 2008 at 9:00AM

This week's round up of WoW-related posts on our sister site Massively covers many different angles of the MMO universe dominated by World of Warcraft. You can click on the links below or subscribe to a special WoW-only Massively feed.

The Evolution of World of Warcraft's many games
To say that World of Warcraft has changed over the last four years would be something of an understatement. Major content additions have come at a fast and furious rate, from minor class tweaks all the way up to the Burning Crusade expansion itself. The blog GameSetWatch hosts a feature called Play Evolution that looks at just these kinds of changes. In an article this past week author James Lantz laid out some of the ways that Blizzard has modifed WoW over the years.

The top ten features of MMOs
What are the back-of-the-box bullet points that make MMOs great? Which ones stand out? What features are there out there among the many, many MMOs that really speaks volumes about the potential of this game genre? Check out our gallery feature to explore the Top Ten MMO Features with screenshots, historical footnotes, and witty observations.

Worlds of Fantasy show focuses on WoW
Worlds of Fantasy is a series that has run on BBC Four for several weeks. This week's show deals with books, films and "video games" including various clips from MMOGs. Around 37 minutes in, it jumps to World of Warcraft.

Behind the Curtain: Voice Chat - why bother?
So here's a thing – I don't use voice chat in my MMOs. I understand why people use it, and why some guilds view it as a tool they simply could not function without, but I just don't enjoy using it.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Lore

A second look at Hakkar's Corrupted Blood

by Amanda Rivera Oct 2nd 2007 at 5:02PM

Terra Nova is rethinking the conclusions the BBC made a while back about using WoW to study the spread of diseases. If you recall the article stated that player's reactions to the spread of Hakkar's Corrupted Blood was an excellent research tool for how epidemics spread in the real world. Not so says Dan Hunter.

All of this discussion stems from a spell called Corrupted Blood that infects players fighting Hakkar in Zul'Gurub. In some cases players took the disease back with them to Ironforge and Ogrimmar, and death spread amongst the populace of those cities. Dan argues against the BBC claim that we can study diseases within online games to find out how real epidemics would spread.

I see his point really. First, there is the nature of the spell itself, created as a game mechanic, not as a virus with incubation periods and deteriorating illnesses that ultimately lead to a victim's demise. There is nothing within WoW to show the ultimate toll on a population when they must live with an illness for long periods of time, where they cannot log out and go watch a movie instead. Once Corrupted Blood had spread it was over with, there was no need for quarantine, for the development of an antivirus, of really any of those elements that make dealing with a large scale deadly disease so horrific.

The reactions of the players to the debuff, their running around to either help or hurt their fellow players, is really an illustration of social behavior in online games, says Hunter. If we study this at all, we should do it from the context of social science rather than epidemiology. In order to truly study viruses in an online virtual world, we would need to create such a world specifically for that purpose a massively multiplayer online roleplaying scenario in which few would participate because there is nothing fun about disease. In such a scenario, players would not be able to simply remove themselves from the game in order to avoid the plague, otherwise there could be no real research into the behavior of the virus.

I see the value in such a project, and would gladly participate, but I can't foresee anyone with the research funding substantial enough to accomplish this spending it on what would be essentially termed a game. Unless of course a company like Blizzard donates their resources to the creation of such a project.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves

Breakfast Topic: MMO = MatchMaking Online?

by Amanda Rivera Sep 18th 2007 at 8:03AM

The multiplayer in MMO seems to be catching on these days, but for reasons you might not expect. BBC online recently published an article discussing how MMOs in general and WoW in specific make a great place to build romantic relationships.

It used to be that when a couple explained that they met online, their friends would color with embarrassment or quite likely just plain laugh. But nowadays with the popularity of the Internet online rendezvous aren't as uncommon, and now it appears that MMOs are the new trend in online dating.

Filed under: WoW Social Conventions, Breakfast Topics

The BBC examines love in Azeroth

by Mike Schramm Sep 5th 2007 at 6:00PM

There's an interesting piece up over at the BBC's State of Play blog about how online games are becoming more and more social places, not just for friendly relationships, but for romantic ones as well. While meeting online used to be an embarassing thing for couples, nowadays it's much, much more common, and what better place to meet online than in a social MMORPG like World of Warcraft?

Unfortunately, the idea doesn't quite fly with me. In an online situation like, say Facebook, you're more or less playing yourself-- odds are you've posted your own picture, your own opinions, and your own favorite music. But in World of Warcraft, you're playing a character. And even if that character isn't completely different from your real-life persona (most people actually are themselves in the game, unlike hardcore roleplayers), it's still different enough, in my opinion, to be a significant barrier to actually judging someone as a relationship partner.

But that's just me-- lots of people have found significant others in online games, and even more have met lots of people in MMOs, and then actually become better friends or partners after meeting them in real life. But while an online space like Myspace or Facebook might be very conducive to getting a real sense of new people, an online game set in a fictional universe like WoW is still too separate from the real world to allow for a real love connection on its own.

Filed under: Virtual selves, News items, RP

BBC: WoW behavior can predict epidemic patterns

by Elizabeth Wachowski Aug 21st 2007 at 9:30AM

With all the recent news stories about WoW ruining lives, destroying children, supporting terrorism, etc., it's nice to see the media reporting on the positive aspects of the game. But this WoW-positive article has a surprising source -- the prestigious Lancet medical journal.

As reported by the BBC, Nina Fefferman and Eric Lofgren, both from the Tufts University Inititiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Disease, have published an article in the Lancet about how virtual worlds can provide models for human behavior in real-world epidemics. The duo specifically focused on the "Corrupted Blood" epidemic of fall 2005, which virtually wiped out Orgrimmar and Ironforge on many servers.

The BBC article states, "Some acted selflessly, rushing to the aid of other characters even though that meant they risked infection themselves. Others fled infected cities in an attempt to save themselves. And some who were sick made it their mission to deliberately infect others." Fefferman added that since it's impossible/unethical to "cause" an epidemic in real life and see how human behavior influences its spread, virtual worlds may be the best model for this type of research.

However, she admitted that people are likely to take more risks with disease in-game than in real life, which sounds about right. Dying to tuberculosis is unlikely to cost you a mere five-minute corpse run, and I don't tend to see many people hiding incredibly infectious animals in bags and then pulling them out in the middle of a crowded shopping center, which is pretty much what happened with Corrupted Blood.

What do you think about this study? And, taking a broader view, does people's behavior in WoW accurately reflect their behavior in real life?

Filed under: Virtual selves, News items

"Stranglethorn Hole" and the doom of casual WoW?

by David Bowers Jun 14th 2007 at 3:01PM

Recent reports that the general population of WoW players may be going down for the first time cause some concern, enough to even have our post on the subject listed on the BBC for a while. Our readers gave lots of reasons why something was missing from The Burning Crusade, from problems with the new raids, new items, or even lack of anything actually "new" at all. Granted, it is too soon to say whether people are leaving WoW en masse or not, but the concerns raised here are still valid.

One of the main problems our readers cited was leveling boredom. The game before Outland is a bottleneck for casual players who want to explore other classes and playstyles but find that getting where they want to be with their new favorite alt would take more tedium and repetition than they're willing to tolerate. Some have the patience and dedication for it, but for others it feels like an impassible jungle.

Stranglethorn Vale, sometimes called the "Stranglethorn Hole" (coined by Tobold in reference to black holes, I think), has been the prime example of 1-60 leveling boredom, because at some point between levels 30 and 45, quests in most other areas just dry up, and you're left with little choice other than to help out the goblins in Booty Bay. The Gaming Fascist complains that he couldn't get any characters through the Vale without it feeling like "an affliction or a chore, something I don't really enjoy and fall back to when times get too boring." This was especially infuriating for him since he apparently chose a PvP server and he got ganked a lot there. Anyone tends to feel frustrated and hopeless when your goal is so far away that you have no reasonable means to achieve it.

We took a light-hearted look into the future a couple weeks ago, to see what solutions might present themselves in a few years as this problem gets increasingly severe. The fact is that has to be done for casuals who can't or don't want to go raiding, and if trying out new classes and isn't really a feasible option, then what's to prevent them from feeling stuck with nothing to do? More reputations to grind?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Leveling, Alts

Official WoW contest: Robin Hood Screenshots

by Dan O'Halloran May 28th 2007 at 6:45PM

Steal from the Consortium and give to the Broken? Ambush Illidian and hand the purple to a newbie? How will you capture the essence of Robin Hood and his campaign to fight corruption and poverty?

Blizzard is sponsoring a new screenshot contest asking just that question. Inspired by the BBC series, Robin Hood, Blizzard has put out a call for screenshot entries showing the spirit of the outlaw with the heart of gold. Prizes include a Robin Hood Genuine Pewter Tankard and the Robin Hood Season One dvd.

Some important notes:
- Contest runs from May 25 - June 8, 2007
- You must be at least 13 years of age and If you are under the age of majority (usually 18), your parents must agree to the contest rules
- You must be a U.S. Resident, but not a resident of Florida or Rhode Island (those states have laws prohibiting these kinds of contests so don't complain to Blizzard about it.)

Read the full contest rules to make sure you qualify to enter.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Contests

BBC reports on upcoming WoW competition

by Paul Sherrard May 7th 2007 at 1:02PM

Slashdot is linking this morning to an article that BBC has posted today which gathers views from several game developers as they talk about what comes next when you have a behemoth such as the World of Warcraft dominating the MMO-verse. While somewhat light on new perspectives, it's just further showing that developers really do have to account for WoW when considering their existing and future software offerings.

Though the article talks with people behind Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, and the upcoming Age of Conan, I find that Slashdot commenter JanusFury sums it up best with, "Instead of complaining about the lack of a strong competitor to WoW, how about making one?"

What's on your MMO horizon as a WoW-killer? Does anything coming up, or existing on the market now, have a powerful enough hook to pull you away from the World of Warcraft? Obviously, if you look at the included image, you know what I'm waiting for.

[via Slashdot]

Filed under: News items

WoW Moviewatch: The BBC on WoW

by Elizabeth Harper Apr 28th 2007 at 11:42AM

Proving that World of Warcraft is a big enough phenomenon for even the most mainstream media to notice, this three-minute clip features BBC reporters attempting to explain gold farming and buying to a non-gamer audience. While the information may not be terribly informative to those of us who already play and understand the game, it's usually interesting to see how exactly the media attempts to portray gamers to the larger public.

Previously on Moviewatch...

Filed under: News items, WoW Moviewatch

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